20 Aug 2023  |   04:26am IST

After a decade, Goa to listen to a symphony by Kala Academy students

Since 1970, Kala Academy has trained magnificent musicians under the mentorship of extraordinary music teachers and directors. The first true exposure these budding musicians have is in front of a large audience at the annual Founder’s Day event where hundreds of musical lovers see their potential. This year, the staff and students of the Western Music School of Kala Academy, in collaboration with the Institute Menezes Braganza, will present a programme of classical music on August 22, under their current director, Maestro Fr Romeo Monteiro

Dolcy D’Cruz

From the sprawling green campus of Kala Academy along the river Mandovi to the summer palace of Adil Shah, the students of the Department of Western Music are absorbing the education they are receiving irrespective of its location. The melodious voice, the strumming of the classical guitar and the students practicing on the violin all can be heard at the five-centuries-old palace where students are studying music with their mind, heart and soul.

“Since the Kala Academy complex is under renovation, the classes of the Department of Western Music of the Kala Academy are at present being conducted in corridors and four rooms of what was formerly the Adil Shah Palace, Panjim. The teaching faculty of the Department of Western Music consists of seven lecturers, six teachers and nine teachers on lecture basis,” says the current director of the Department of Western Music, Fr Romeo Monteiro.

Maestro Antonio Fortunato Figueiredo was the founder director of Academic de Música da Índia Portuguesa, India’s premier full-fledged school of western classical music. He was born on August 20, 1908 in Loutulim. He breathed his last in 1981 and since then Kala Academy established its annual programme, Founder’s Day, which is held in his memory.

Maestro Antonio Figueiredo began his musical education in his parochial school, in his home village of Loutulim. He went to Portugal and studied at the Conservatório Nacional de Lisboa, graduating with a Higher Education Degree in Violin in 1932. He also went to Paris, where he took classes in Musique et Musicologie in France. Returning to Goa, in 1936, he was engaged in choirs and ensembles in Portuguese Goa. He convinced the Portuguese regime to begin the Academia de Música da Índia Portuguesa, modelled on the musical education given at the Conservatories in Europe. Thus began, in 1952, the Academia de Música, the first school that taught western classical music in a systematic and scientific method in India.

In 1970, the Academia was absorbed into the Kala Academy Goa and is, since then, supported by the Government of Goa, under the aegis of the Directorate of Art and Culture. The Department of Western Music of the Kala Academy is presently headed by Maestro Fr Romeo Monteiro. Fr Romeo, is a diocesan priest who was a former student of the Kala Academy Goa, and studied under the then director, Maestro Lourdino Barreto. He then proceeded to Rome, where he obtained degrees in Composition and in Church Music at the Pontificio Istituto di Sacra Musica and at the Pontificio Ataneo di Sant Anselmo, besides his ecclesiastical degrees of theological and canonical sciences at the Pontificia Università di San Tommasso (Angelicium). He was also formerly Professor of Music and Conductor of the Santa Cecilia Choir and Orchestra, with which he has given several performances all over Goa.

Currently, 359 students are offered classes with each course including solfeggio as well as theory of music. It continues to impart holistic musical education to students. Children as young as 7 years can join the classes in January and can continue studying music for 13 years which is Grade 12 or a licentiate degree. The classes are held from 2 pm to 6 pm, attracting mostly students from North Goa. Many of the present music teachers have also been former students of Kala Academy’s Department of Western Music.

On August 22, the annual Founder’s Day will be held at Institute Menezes Braganza, Panjim at 6 pm. The programme will consist of solos, duos and ensembles by the students studying in the various disciplines offered by the department: strings, pianoforte, classical guitar, electronic keyboard and voice. The junior and senior choirs of Kala Academy Goa will also be in attendance. Young violinists will also perform in the Junior String Orchestra.

The highlight of the evening’s programme will be Haydn’s Symphony No 70, conducted by Maestro Romeo Monteiro. A symphony, played by a full-fledged symphonic orchestra, with all the sections – strings, reeds, brass and percussion – is something that Goa has not heard for the past several years. The Kala Academy Symphony Orchestra, composed of staff and students under the baton of their director, is presenting this intricate work (Symphony) written in 4 movements.

This Symphony is the work of Franz Joseph Haydn, an Austrian composer of the Classical period. Haydn has written over 100 Symphonies and was the most celebrated composer during his times (end of 18th century). He is considered as the ‘Father of the Symphony’. He is said to be the mentor of Mozart and Beethoven.

“A symphony is a lengthy form of musical composition for orchestra. It is divided into many movements, 3 or 4 or even 5. The movements are composed in different forms: sonata form, rondo form, etc. Symphonies, in this sense, began to be composed during the Classical period of European musical history (1750–1820). The early part of this period and the decade immediately preceding it are sometimes called pre-Classical, as are the symphonies written before about 1750. During the 19th century, which included the Romantic period of music, symphonies grew longer, and composers concerned themselves with ways of unifying the movements. Later, even choral parts were included in the Symphonies, like the Choral Symphony no 9 of Beethoven,” explains Fr Romeo.

Interestingly, this will be the first time in over a decade that a complete symphony, with a full-fledged symphony orchestra will be performed in Goa.

Goa had a Symphony Orchestra, called the Goa Symphony Orchestra, founded by Maestro Antonio de Figueiredo and then continued by Maestro Lourdino Barreto. The Goa Symphony Orchestra, of which Fr Romeo Monteiro was a member, performed also in Pune and Bombay, besides regular performances in Goa.

“Somehow, in the 1990s, I was told that the direction of the Goa Symphony Orchestra was removed from the direction of Fr Lourdino and given to someone else. Thus began the decadence. Later, Jerome Fernandes, an ex-military musician, was called on to revive the Goa Symphony Orchestra. It did give some concerts, but the revival did not last long. Now, since there is no Goa Symphony Orchestra, I thought of gathering together students and other musicians and present a Symphony,” adds Fr Romeo. The programme on Tuesday will also include the distribution of prizes to meritorious students who studied in the previous academic year from January to December, 2022.

On a more positive note, after over five decades of providing the best of Western Music training in North Goa, the children in South Goa too will have an opportunity to gain through music. “We have good news that, as discussed in the recently concluded Assembly session, the Government is keen on opening a branch of the Kala Academy’s Department of Western Music in the South, for the benefit of students from the southern parts of Goa,” concludes Fr Romeo.