Fundação Oriente recently organised the 14th
edition of the Monte Music Festival, which was held from February 5 to 7, 2016
at the Chapel of Our Lady of the Mount in Old Goa. The festival presents Indian
and Western Classical concerts over the span of three days. Yvonne Rebello from
Miramar has
been a part of Fundação Oriente since 1997, and every event held under the
institute’s banner is carefully handled by her. It was hence no surprise that
she would be bring out the best, along with Maria Inês Figueira, Director of Fundação
Oriente, this year.
“For the festival, we select groups for both Indian and
Western classical music. The chapel is ideal for acoustics, and so we have
choral music performed there by different choirs as amplification is
restricted. Another restriction is that since it is a chapel, only sacred music
can be performed there. So far, we had choirs from Delhi,
Bangalore, Pune
perform at the festival. This year we had the Goa University Choir, accompanied
by Sonia Shirsat, the Capella della Luce Ensemble from Spain directed by Santiago Lusardi Girelli and
the Goa string Orchestra with Karl Lutchmayer on
piano, and the Stuti Choral Ensemble conducted by Parvesh Java. Every year, we
give importance to local, national and international musicians to showcase
their talent at the festival,” says Yvonne.
Handling the festival since day one, Yvonne is attuned to
the minutest detail required for the festival. “It was very different in the
beginning. We had to invite performers to come for the festival but after the
initial years, we now have choirs and musicians who send in their proposals to
be part of the festival. For the Indian Classical performers, the festival has
evolved to a point where the audience also tells us about groups which they
have heard of or come across and when contacted, they were keen on coming. The
entire festival has to be of the right mix, right from the two genres of music,
to instruments which we have heard about but not seen played live,” adds
Yvonne.
Maria Inês Figueira from Lisbon,
Portugal has been living in Goa for the past five years. She has witnessed the
festival as part of the audience and was a part of the organisation for the
first time as she took over as the Director of Fundação Oriente, in August
2015. Apart from the on-stage performances, there is a lot more happening
backstage, as Maria explains. “We start with the ground work from August,
though we start receiving proposals as soon as the festival concludes. There
are certain guidelines which have to be followed and we have to get permissions
from the Archbishop and the Department of Archaeology to organise the festival.
There is a lot of work involved and we have to have the best possible
performance. The audience gets overwhelmed because the quality is getting
better every year as the festival grows,” she says in hindsight.
Yvonne adds, “We have to work around a small budget and as
the festival is free, it is important to manage everything efficiently. The
venues are heritage sites and even water has to be arranged. The first year, we
had to struggle with a small green room but once the performer is on stage,
everyone is awed with the setting. Right from setting up the stage to the final
cleaning, we have to handle everything.”
There is a divide between the audience who prefer either
of the two classical genres and yet Fundação Oriente has found a way to merge
the two. “The festival was first organised under the former Director, Sergio
Mascarenhas and he decided to have the festival at Old Goa. In the beginning,
very few people attended the festival. Some preferred Indian performances,
while others waited for the Western performance. The Indian performance takes
place in the courtyard before the performance in the Chapel, so we decided to
lock the chapel as those who come early are compelled to witness the Indian
performance. Gradually, the audience started appreciating both genres,” says
Yvonne, who was surprised with the response on the first day of Carnival. “The
festival was full-up. We expected a drop in the audience, but there were many
foreigners and tourists who were interested in the festival,” she adds.
Maria has been a Cultural Programmer in Europe
and has organised shows, festivals and exhibitions in the past. When asked
about what it is like to organise a festival of this caliber, being a team of only
women, she says, “India and Europe function in a different way, and it is always
thrilling to see the outcome which is both challenging and rewarding.”
