One of Goa’s most renowned music festivals, the Monte Music Festival, organised by Fundação Oriente is back to woo music lovers with three days of musical brilliance that is a treat to the ears and eyes of the audience. The 22nd edition of the annual festival will be held on February 2 and 3 at the courtyard of the Chapel of Our Lady of the Mount, Old Goa and on February 4 at St John the Baptist Church, Benaulim.
Organised by Fundagao Oriente with the support of the Department of Archaeology, Government of Goa, Furtado’s Music, Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage and Archdiocese of Goa & Daman, the festival is free and no passes are required.
This is the second edition of the festival under Dr Paulo Gomes, director of Fundação Oriente, who has been assisted by the team at Fundacao Oriente. Speaking about how it feels to be back at the venue that the festival is named after, Dr Paulo says, “Its happiness for us to be back at the Chapel, because Monte Music Festival was born there. The concept of the Monte Music Festival has always been about the Chapel. It was very important to be back, for now only at the courtyard, but the courtyard is amazing. Next year, we will see if we can have something inside the Chapel. It means a lot to be back after the four years. The last edition at the Chapel was in 2019, so we are very happy and proud to be back at the Chapel.”
On the opening evening of the festival, today, February 2, Dr Sweekar Katti and Friends will perform a sitar recital, ‘Classical Instrumental Fusion’ at 5.45 pm at the courtyard of the Chapel of Our Lady of the Mount, Old Goa. Son and disciple of music composer Dr Sunil Katti, a well-renowned sitar and santoor maestro, Sweekar belongs to the Imdadkhani Etawah Gharana. A gold medallist in Sangeet Visharad and Master of Arts (Sitar), Sweekar received a fellowship for his Doctoral Thesis from the University of Mumbai in 2016. He has performed fusion music at many music festivals in India, USA, Canada and South Korea, alongside the country’s top musicians. He has worked for films with many popular Bollywood music directors like Pritam, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Himesh Reshammiya, Anand Milind, Sohail Sen and others. For this concert, he will be accompanied by Amit Padhye on keyboards, Shikhar Qureshi on drums and Rohit Deo on tabla.
On February 3, the evening will open at 5.45 pm with a performance by Mitali and Raul of ‘A Blessing’. A beautiful family amalgamation of Odissi and Bharatnatyam, the performance will showcase contemporary classical dance in tandem with a blend of classical fusion music.
At 7 pm, Ana Paula Russo (vocals) and Nuno Dias (Portuguese Guitar) will take the stage with their performance of ‘Between Women’. The project arose from the desire to unite two musical and cultural languages within Portuguese popular musical culture: the feminine discourse of the Portuguese Guitar (from Coimbra) and the (female) voice. Ana Paula Russo is a Portuguese lyric soprano singer from Portugal who is known for her countless performances in choral-symphonic concerts, opera and chamber music, both in Portugal and abroad. Nuno Dias is a teacher and one of the biggest names in Portuguese Guitar.
Interestingly, this will be the first Monte Music Festival that will not require passes for any of the concerts. “It’s a decision from this year of the concept of no passes because now doesn’t make sense to have passes. Earlier, the people from Panjim collected passes from the Fundacao Oriente office but people from the South or people from out of Panjim sometimes they didn’t have the opportunity to come and to collect the passes. This is event is open to all, Goans and tourists, we want to continue with this no passes concept in the coming editions too,” says Dr Paulo.
The concluding performance is on Sunday, February 4, at St John the Baptist Church, Benaulim at 6 pm where Paranjoti Academy Chorus will perform an A Capella Repertoire. Spanning 60 years, Coomi Wadia, conductor emeritus, has led Paranjoti Academy Chorus worldwide since 1967 on multiple tours in Europe, the USA, Japan and the Philippines. Under her baton, the choir has won many international accolades in competitions and festivals. The Chorus has, to date, performed more than 200 concerts in 18 different countries, the most recent one in Moscow with the Symphony Orchestra of India (SOI), under the baton of Alexander Annissimov. Primarily, an ‘a cappella’ group, they also perform masterworks with orchestras and have been invited to perform in the SOI’s opera productions.
This is the first time that festival is being held in the South of Goa. “We reckon that it is important to take the Monte Music Festival at least one day to the South for the people of South Goa to attend the festival. Secondly, the renovation of the Chapel of Our Lady of the Mount, Old Goa is ongoing and this way, we can have the concert by Paranjoti at Benaulim. We had a conversation with the priest and it is a beautiful church which has all the conditions to accommodate the concert. The main reason is to allow people from the south to attend the festival,” concludes Dr Paulo.
