Dolcy D’Cruz
After learning something passionately, it’s most
rewarding to get a good platform to showcase your talent. Many young singers
educated in singing as well as theory of Fado have been part of the Fado de
Goa over the last year. Now, Fado de Goa in association with the
Deccan Heritage Foundation will be presenting Goa’s first ever Festa de Fado
on January 21, 2018 at Maquinez Palace, Panjim. The event will include a
master class on Fado conducted by Goa’s very own fadista, Sonia Shirsat,
who will introduce and educate participants about the music form along with
practical demonstrations and videos. This will be followed by a concert,
where the students of Fado de Goa will perform together with Sonia,
their mentor.
“At the
concert, we will have four students who will represent the three batches that
we have conducted; one is from Vasco, one from Panjim
and two from Margao. I will also be performing at the one hour concert. The
workshop is open to all; it is for anybody
who is ten years and above. It is not restricted to students. It is actually
for people who have not been able to be our students. The lecture will contain
videos and a movie so that they get a better understanding of this form of
music,” explains Sonia.
Fado de Goa is an ongoing initiative of Sonia Shirsat and Taj Hotels Palaces Resorts
Safaris, through which over 200 students from the Margao, Panjim and Vasco
chapters have been educated in this music genre through sessions of theory as
well as singing. In addition to assignments, they have completed written and
oral exams before an external panel consisting of experts in music and the
Portuguese language.
“Students of Fado de Goa have performed
before at various events. We also had the students’ concert at
Clube Harmonia, Margao, last year. They performed at the Taj, Elite Model Hunt
and at Museum of Goa at some of their cultural evenings. The students also
participated in the Fado Singing Competition at Semana De Cultura. They
have been performing regularly for the past one year. This is the first time we
are having a festival, a festa,” she adds.
Sonia goes
on to say that this event is not just a concert. “The festa is like a half day event because it includes workshops,
interactions and a question-answer session, followed by the concert that
showcases students. So it is not just a concert, as the whole thing is called Festa
de Fado. I am quite
excited because it is like going for your own child’s social gathering in
school.”
The master
class will be held at 3pm, followed by the
concert at 6:30pm. “We have received an excellent response
from students of all ages. Festa de Fado will be very encouraging for
first timers because fado will be
explained, the students will be singing, there will be videos about fado at the
workshop. Those who have attended fado or are familiar
with fado will also benefit from it because there is a
lot of information that you would normally not have access to. Apart from that,
they will experience the students singing fado. Students who
have picked fado in less than a year are already performing on
stage with musicians. Looking at that itself is very encouraging,” concludes
Sonia.
‘Festa de Fado’ will be held on January 21,
2018 at the Maquinez Palace, Panjim from 3pm onwards
