16 Oct 2018  |   06:40am IST

A feast of classical music

‘Da Capo Sammelan’ is an international concert featuring a melange of globally acclaimed artistes and budding Indian youngsters, headed by Patricia Rozario (OBE, FRCM, Soprano, teacher and daughter of Goa), and Mika Nishimura (violin soloist and teacher), accompanied by Mark Troop (musician, broadcaster, writer, teacher and presenter)

Karsten Miranda

 

 

Da Capo Sammelan or ‘A Gathering From The Top’ is Goa’s

annual western music festival, incorporating an international concert with Indian soprano Patricia Rozario and guests, and a showcase event for talented Indian students at the Dinanath Mangeshkar Auditorium, Kala Academy, on October 15 and 16, 2018, at 6:30 pm.

The Festival, now in its third year, seeks to provide a high level concert experience for Goa’s enthusiastic classical music audience. For the two previous editions of the Festival, the Sammelan has brought in international soloists to join Patricia Rozario in recital.

With this firmly established, Da Capo Sammelan also seeks to establish the more important aspect of a music festival, as a collaborative event for Indian musicians. This year, the first concert was a platform for gifted Indian students to display their talents. This will hopefully become a fixture for the festival and provide a much needed showcase for Goan and Indian students and musicians in the western classical field.

For the 2018 edition of Da Capo Sammelan, the international concert features Patricia, her pianist husband Mark Troop and Mumbai-based Japanese violinist Mika Nishimura in an entertaining concert of western classics for voice, violin and piano, and an Indian song cycle by Vanraj Bhatia.

The Indian concert on October 15showcased talented Goan students performing on piano and violin, and singers from Giving Voice Society providing ‘Love and Laughter’ - a selection of romantic arias and humorous songs by Flanders and Swann.The first half of the show featured ‘Young Goan Talent’. Five violin soloists, each accompanied by the accomplished pianist Ingrid-Anne Nazareth. That’s Nadia Barreto, Shanaya Carvalho, Anthea Luna Marie M. Dias, Amanda Rodrigues, Cayla Marie Rodrigues; and five piano soloists, namely, Akhil Dayal , Kamryn Menezes, Daniel Monteiro, Alayna Paes and Gautam Sankar P.The second half featured ‘Love And Laughter’ – four outstanding young Indian voices from ‘Giving Voice Society’, namely, Rahul Bharadwaj (baritone, Pune), Anushka Coutinho (soprano, Goa), Shreya Nayak (soprano, Mumbai) and Anoushka Pokhare (mezzo soprano, Mumbai); accompanied by Mark Troop on the piano.

(These four artistes are among those pictured above).

Da Capo Sammelan is a collaboration between Dempo Industries (Vasantrao Dempo Vasantrao Dempo Education and Research Foundation) and Patricia Rozario and Mark Troop of Giving Voice Society. This is its third edition, taking place this year at Kala Academy, Panjim.Cidade de Goa are the hospitality partners.

It is to be noted that Patricia and Mark’s work in India has been to encourage interest in Western music. To that end, they set up a teaching project called ‘Giving Voice to India’ – training Indian vocalists of the future – and, more recently, founded the Giving Voice Society to represent those interests more effectively as a foundation.‘Giving Voice to India’ seeks to establish a proper vocal method in India, prepares Indian students for study in the west and for potential careers in music, and creates performance opportunities. Since its inception in 2009, the foundation, renamed Giving Voice Society’, has propelled fifteen singers for international study and produced four operas in India with all-Indian casts.

The second day will feature an international celebrity concert featuring Patricia Rozario (soprano),Mika Nishimura (niolin) and Mark Troop (piano)

Patricia Rozario

Born in Bombay, Patricia Rozario is India’s foremost international opera singer. Her career has encompassed all the major global venues with many of the world’s finest conductors, orchestras and opera houses. She has a host of international awards, from recording to prestigious arts organisations and from the British and Indian governments.

Patricia Rozario was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the New Year’s Honours (2001), the Asian Women’s Award for achievement in the Arts (2002), the Global Goan Award (2007), the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award (2013) and, most recently, was made a Fellow of the Royal College of Music (FRCM), an award putting her alongside some of the greatest names in Classical Music.

In October 2016, Patricia Rozario and her husband, pianist Mark Troop, musically inaugurated the newly refurbished Royal Opera House, Mumbai.

Mark Troop

Mark Troop, pianist, broadcaster and writer, is the founder of The Chamber Music Company, a creative performance group. He made his name first as a solo pianist, recording Beethoven for BBC Radio 3, but soon branched into chamber music and song, founding the Chamber Music Company (CMC) with Patricia, in the 1990s.

Mark Troop has founded and run the following festivals: The CMC Summer Solstice, The Latin American Roadshow, The CMC Rare Music Series, The Second Glance Festival of new music, Inspired By China and German Cabaret.

In 2014, Mark Troop was invited to become a guest lecturer at Goa University on a three-year term lecturing on music, and in 2015, with Indian pianist Parvesh Java, founded In Good Form, a high-level piano course training the next generation of Indian pianists and teachers.

Mika Nishimura

Mika Nishimura was born in Fukuoka, Japan. Prior to her education abroad, she debuted as the soloist with a concert in Tokyo.

She has performed in concerts in Swaziland, Brazil, Bahrain, Mumbai, Sri Lanka , Spain, Israel, Switzerland with various international recognized groups and institutions.

She was teaching as a visiting teacher at Mehli Mehta Music Foundation from 2013-2016. During that period, she took 22 Indian students who played the violin and viola to Japan for a tour where they performed with Japanese children at the Takasaki Music Festival. Her students performed in NCPA as an opening act, where they played Australian and Indian national anthem forZubin Mehta’s Australian world orchestra tour concert.

Mika Nishimura received the first prize for the 22nd Young Musician International Competition ‘Citta di Barletta’, Young Soloist Prize.