PANAJI
The Western Music Department of Kala Academy will mark its Founder’s Day with a full-scale orchestra concert at the Campal auditorium on Saturday. The programme, beginning at 5.30 pm, will feature the Kala Academy Symphony Orchestra conducted by Director Fr Romeo Monteiro. Chairman Chandrakant (Babu) Kavlekar will attend as chief guest. Certificates will also be presented to meritorious students.
The orchestra, comprising 52 students, teachers, former students and music enthusiasts, will perform Rossini’s overture and Mozart’s Symphony No. 32. The Kala Academy choir will also perform. Monteiro said symphony orchestra performances were rare in India and highlighted the challenges of running the ensemble without corporate sponsorship or external funding. He said the orchestra was made up entirely of Goans and had developed its reed, brass and percussion sections from local talent.
The Western Music Department traces its roots to the Academia de Musica, founded in 1952 under a Portuguese decree. Today, nearly 400 students study disciplines including violin, cello, piano, classical guitar, voice training and musicology. The concert is expected to offer Goan audiences a rare opportunity to hear symphonic music performed on such a scale.
