A man who has trained some of Goa’s most talented violinists was recently commended for his
work. Prof Antonio Peregrino da Costa the man with the magic violin has been
training young musicians across continents for over fifty years. He was
felicitated at the hands of violin virtuoso Amar Haldipur, Pandit Shankar
Abhyanka, Pandit Arun Kashalkar and Dr Sudha Datar.
Surprised by the honour he said it was an
honour to be felicitated by renowned Indian musicians. The evening was
organised by Indradanush Foundation and Raikar Academy of Violin. The highlight
of the evening was a tribute by Pandit Milind Raikar who played a few western
compositions taught by Prof Costa. It has been quite a journey for the man
started his romance with the instrument at the age of four. Born in Macau, he
returned to Goa to study the violin and passed the Trinity College of Music
with distinction. The violin it certainly was, nothing else mattered. He moved
to Brazil and became part of that country’s cultural establishment. He was part
of various state institutes and gained a reputation for himself. But like
anyone else. The call of home was strong. He returned to Goa. He then proceeded
to do here what he had done in Brazil. He trained young players. He said the
number of young violinists coming through the system was interesting and many
of them were very talented.
When asked who was his favourite composer, he said with out
hesitation it had to be Mozart and his favourite violinist undoubtedly that
Italian genius Paganini. Still very sprightly at 89 but with a mild infection
in one ear, he said it was important to put in the effort to do justice to the
talent one had. He said “Everyone envies the girl who plays very well but we do
not, when performing in public, can play theviolin consistently well. What we
do not envy is the hours put in to master that instrument”.
He
went on to say that in everyday life one usually met people who could be called
talented because they could recite a poem or paint very well without much
effort. It may excitingbut also dangerous because some people might think they
had achieved something already. To fulfil promise one had to be focussed. The
violin he said was a demanding instrument and one had to be ready to go all the
way to become very good at it.
