SATURDAY, APRIL 27, 2024
Goa is blessed to have melodious singers and versatile musicians. Every function is incomplete without music and Goans have learnt to appreciate the talent displayed by musicians, especially youngsters. To learn Western classical music, it is important to be guided by the right maestros. In Goa, the Kala Academy has been an institution that has produced some of the best musicians under the tutelage of various directors since 1970 through the programmes of the Western Music School. The quality of music has led Goan musicians trained under Kala Academy to perform not only in India, but also abroad for an international audience.
Every year, the Department of Western Music of the Kala Academy celebrates Founder's Day on August 20, the birthday anniversary of Maestro Antonio Fortunato Figueiredo, a stalwart musician from Loutolim. Due to the pandemic, programmes of the Western Music School, could not be held for the past two years. This year, the staff and students of Kala Academy, in collaboration with the Institute Menezes Braganza, will come together to present a programme of Classical Music at the Institute Menezes Braganza, Panjim, on August 19, at 6 pm. Besides solos, duos, quartets in strings, pianoforte, classical guitar and voice, there will be a rendition of the Kala Academy Choir. The highlight of the evening will be the First Movement of Konzert in G by Mozart, for Pianoforte and Orchestra. The Symphonic Orchestra will comprise of about 50 musicians, strings including violins, violas, cellos and double basses, four reeds and two brass instruments. The youngest musician is 13 years old while the eldest in the late 50s.
Scored by the famous W A Mozart, the orchestra will conducted by Fr Romeo Monteiro, director of the Department of Western Music of the Kala Academy, with Amanda Gonsalves Rodrigues, a student of Pianoforte in Grade XI, as the soloist. This would be a rare occasion, after such a big gap, to listen to Classical music involving a full-fledged orchestra. The programme will be graced by Minister for Art and Culture and the Chairman of Kala Academy, Govind Gaude, along with other dignitaries. Prizes to meritorious students will be distributed on the occasion.
“During the pandemic, the Kala Academy was functioning. For some months, we could not have physical classes, but our teachers did take classes online. It was challenging, but it was a learning process even for the teachers. Now, we have returned to physical lessons. So, training was not abandoned, but was carried on in a different mode,” says Fr Romeo Monteiro.
Without access to Kala Academy for regular classes, was there a hindrance to the musical education for the students? “There are some minor difficulties, because we do not have separate class-rooms and the sound is not contained. But, on the whole, there is no great hindrance. Teachers and students have adjusted to the place at Adil Shah and the authorities of the Kala Academy are providing us the facilities in the best way possible, so that the students learn well and progress in their musical education,” he explains.
Going back in time, Maestro Antonio Fortunato Figueiredo, was one of Goa's greatest classical musicians was born in 1908 and passed away in 1981. Figueiredo began his musical education in the parochial school in Loutolim. At the age of 19, he went to Portugal and took classes at the Conservatório Nacional de Lisboa, graduating with a Higher Education Degree in Violin in 1932. He then proceeded to Paris to study at the Faculty of Music and Musicology at Paris. Returning to Goa, he formed choirs and ensembles. He managed to convince the then Portuguese Government to begin, in 1952, the Academia de Música da Índia Portuguesa, modelled on the musical education given at the Conservatories in Europe.
In 1970, the Academia was absorbed into the Kala Academy Goa and is supported by the Government of Goa, under the aegis of the Directorate of Art and Culture. In fact, it is the only institution in Goa, which imparts holistic musical education to students in a systematic and scientific manner. In 1977, Maestro Fr Lourdino Barreto, a diocesan priest from Galgibaga, Canacona, was appointed Director, in place of the aged Maestro Figueiredo. Maestro Barreto worked hard to raise the level of musical education in Goa. He also prepared text books on musical education to be used in schools. He trained the Goa Symphony Orchestra, which gave several performances of renowned classical works and conducted the Music Lovers’ Goa Philharmonic Choir, which brought laurels to the musical culture of Goa through its several performances in and outside India. He was a prolific composer and arranger of music and also contributed compositions to ‘Gaionancho Jhelo’, the official hymnal of the Archdiocese of Goa and Daman. Maestro Barreto died suddenly in January 1997, exactly twenty-five years ago.
The Department of Western Music of the Kala Academy is now directed by Maestro Fr Romeo Monteiro, another diocesan priest, who did his musical training first at the Kala Academy under Maestro Barreto and then in Rome at the Pontifical Insitute for Sacred Music and at the famous Benedictine-run Pontifical Athaeneum of St Anselm.
“I began serving as the Director in 2018. The pandemic curtailed a lot of our activity. But, on the whole, students are progressing well. We have prepared and updated our syllabi. Some students take a lot of interest; some come for pass-time. The authorities of the Kala Academy give their support to our initiatives. There is a lot of talent in Goa, and we are trying our best to give the students the best all round musical education. We have also begun ‘Open Examinations’, where outsiders can answer examinations and test their level of learning,” concludes Fr Monteiro.
