A talent hunt where the winner was music

The talent hunt across Tamil Nadu was a revelation of sorts

November 21, 2019 02:12 pm | Updated 02:12 pm IST

The past six weeks I have been on the road. Literally, as I travelled to six different regions of Tamil Nadu on the look out for piano talent. What started as a hypothesis last year has turned out to be a tried and tested theory in this round. There is tremendous talent everywhere in India, sometimes in the most unexpected places, and this is true especially deep South. What is truly unexpected is that it concerns an instrument not traditionally associated with this part of the world, the piano.

The backgrounds that these children come from could not be more diverse. The father of one of the finalists owns and drives an autorickshaw, while another is employed in domestic service. Musicians Andrea Jeremiah and Leon James were present at the final held in Chennai (the candidates personally shortlisted by me from over 300 entries across the State!) and were visibly moved by both the talent and the backgrounds of some of our young contestants. There were three categories — beginners (up to Grade 3 or equivalent), intermediates (Grade 3 to Grade 6) and the more advanced players. One of the winners is 6 (Hemant Swain from Chennai from the beginner category) while the overall winners of the talent hunt emerged from KM Music Conservatory — Tavan Shah and Rijul Chakravarty. Isaac Watts from Nagercoil walked away with the prize for the intermediate category. The competition was designed and mentored by me, and sponsored by Casio.

To me, music won. To see hundreds of children from places as far afield as Nagercoil and Siruvachur participate in a piano competition was absolute delight. Also the contest and its attendant interactions brought home deep rooted issues in society. For instance, the “pushy parent” syndrome was on full display. Elsewhere in this column I have indeed referred to this issue. Parents of finalists, who did not make the cut, were vociferous in their anger and disappointment, and I was appalled to see children as young as nine being made mute spectators to all the drama. The most telling moment was when one of the finalists spoke to me quietly and said he was so happy to make it this far, but he will do his best to calm his father down at home. Role reversals indeed!

The other issue that I noticed was how boys were being pushed ahead while equally talented girls were asked to take a back seat. To elaborate, at least two girls who qualified were not sent up for the competition citing reasons of parents not being able to accompany them, while the same parents could go to any length to promote their sons. Misogyny exists no matter how “woke” we think we are becoming!

Our judges for the finale were two eminently qualified pianists — Anand Seshadri and Rishab Nagendra — both from Chennai, who have achieved distinctions in piano playing both here and abroad. Our discussion revolved around the notion that showy and superficial playing (excessive use of hand gestures, fast and often hurried playing, histrionics and “mashups”) were becoming dangerously popular, as children are being told to be “YouTube friendly” as opposed to actually learning music. I heard words such as “virality” and “niraya likes vanganum” (you must get a lot of “likes”) ironically from the more well-heeled parents and teachers.

Those who won were chosen on the basis of being true to the composition and themselves, however outmoded that may seem for today’s breed of click-hungry parents. We are fast becoming the generation that forgot what it meant to be happy and ordinary, enjoying music in its pure and sublime form. After all, while good musicians enjoy the music they learn and perform, extraordinary musicians forget themselves in their music.

The journey of identifying Tamil Nadu’s top piano talents has been truly rewarding in multiple ways. Congratulations to all who participated — as I keep saying, the only winner that we need be concerned about is Music itself.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.