Aruna Sunderlal (77), the Founder and Managing Trustee of Bangalore School of Music, passed away on Thursday evening after a brief illness. She is survived by her daughter Shefali S. Chandel, son Vikram Sunderlal, and brothers Deepak and Vijay.
The funeral service will be held at St John’s Church, St. John’s Church Road at 2.30 pm on Saturday June 25, said officials at the school.
“It’s shocking. Mrs. Sunderlal was more than the founder of the school. To all those who knew her, she was our mentor,” said Jagadeesh, Director (Operations), Bangalore School of Music.
Aruna Sunderlal was born in Delhi in 1939. She had studied singing privately in England and Germany. She founded the school in 1987. It was the country’s third and youngest formal school for Western music.
Beginning with three students, the school functioned from her home for 22 years. In 2008, she built a 12,000 sq feet building in R.T. Nagar equipped with classrooms, recording studios and an auditorium with support from trustees, board members and music lovers. Over 9,500 students have been imparted formal music education in the school. BSM’s Music Outreach programme has enhanced the lives of over 5,500 underprivileged, physically challenged children through formal music education.
At present, the school boasts of 418 students.
“Music for Peace was her last unfulfilled wish that Mrs. Sunderlal shared with me last week. She was making arrangements to take a bus-load of musicians to Lahore (in Pakistan),” said Chiranjeev Singh, former bureaucrat and writer, who is a trustee of BSM. “Although her friendship mission remains unfulfilled, what the people of Bengaluru need to cherish is her single-handed effort to raise funds to build BSM that will turn 30 in February next year.”
