Breaking all age barriers

Diverse Notes

William Joseph Music Foundation held its ninth anniversary celebrations with pomp and fervour at the St John’s Amphitheatre recently.

Around 200 students performed on various instruments like piano, classical guitar and violin. Vocal recitals were also part of the itinerary and students enthusiastically took centre stage, as the proud parents looked on.

From ‘Little Bo-Peep’ to ‘Allegro in E Minor’, the students performed a host of varied musical compositions. Some of them presented their own compositions and gave the audience a glimpse of their creativity. Naren, a 14-year-old vocalist, enthralled the audience with his original composition ‘Everybody’.

The high point of the whole evening was the fact that people of diverse age groups came together for a single cause — the love of music. The saying, ‘music breaks all barriers’ holds true for this event as people from all walks of life were seen at the venue either encouraging the kids or participating in the joyous occasion. Children holding music sheets and their instrument eagerly waiting for their turn was an interesting sight.

One of the highlights of the evening was the ‘Guitar Orchestra’, a first-of-its-kind event. It saw close to 20 classical guitar students performing. It was a true delight to watch them play and the audience were seen enjoying the orchestra.

Ashley Williams, the director of the institute, on the event said, “The whole idea was to propagate the fact that if you are playing music, you need to do it as a group. Music is still taught very conventionally in most places and therefore the interest among students waivers. We break the conventionality associated with music education and encourage the students based on their interest.”

True to Ashley’s words, when Siddhant Gupta, a 10-year-old, when asked why he was pursuing music, gave the matter-of-fact response, “I like playing the piano, and I am going to continue learning it for a really long time.” Anjali Gupta, Siddhant’s mother, too said that it was a brilliant opportunity for the kids to be able to play in front of such a large audience. “It is one thing to sit in a classroom and learn and another to have an experience like this. He has been preparing for the concert for the past three months and is really excited about it,” she added.