JOIN USEverytime he sits at the piano, there is a shroud of humility that envelopes him, despite his looming years of wisdom and experience in Western classical music.
As pianist, lecturer and music educator Karl Lutchmayer tries to revive and explain cultural traditions through keys, one can sense a blur between the self and the music as many times, he becomes his music. A man who wears many hats and holds numerous awards to his credit, the pianist was recently in Bengaluru to conduct advanced training and workshops in classical music for teachers and students at Bangalore School of Music.
He says, “It’s always a pleasure to come to this city. I was here in the 1970s and remember Bengaluru as a sleepy, beautiful town. Now, the city has changed immensely.
The students here are always hungry for knowledge, ask interesting questions on music and keep demanding for more from us.”
A Goan who is now settled in London, Karl began learning piano when his family moved to the West.
His mother had an old piano and Karl began taking lessons when he was 9 years old. He began teaching and travelling for concert pianos and is now a professor of music at the Trinity College, London and a music educator.
Karl believes that this age-old tradition is relevant even today and likes that young classical pianists are trying to keep it that way.
“One has to educate and understand the history and context of classical music to keep it relevant. There is also music that is written about today’s events such as the Iraq war and the presidential elections which is notated in the classical music style. These are two ways that keeps classical music contemporary.”
He isn’t bothered about the competition that classical music faces from other genres.
“Classical music is called classical for a reason as it always faces competition from other genres. Popular music will always be popular. But I see that Western classical music is doing well in Bengaluru, as compared to 20 years ago, as the demand has increased.”
This increase in demand has eventually led to a large number of private teachers coming up in the city but Karl doesn’t look at this as a challenge. “It’s just market,” he says.
“Where there is demand there is always more supply. By the next generation, there will be more teachers and lesser students so eventually, the market will consolidate and only the good teachers will stay.” In the West, he says that funding is a huge challenge now as the government has cut it.
“English National Opera has taken a big hit because of this. The good part is that small scale music entrepreneurs are finding interesting ways to present classical music.”
And after his stint in Bengaluru, he will travel to Goa and Hyderabad to conduct more workshops and “discover Hyderabadi Biriyani”.