PANAJI
For the first time, the ruins of the once towering Convent of Augustinian friars will play host to a western classical music festival, the fourth edition of the Indo-German Confluence, which brings together musicians from Germany and Goa.
This will be the first time in India that a world concert of this scale will take place at a world heritage site, and is the culmination of a series of masterclasses and an orchestra project.
“The Orchestra Project is the formation of an orchestra with musicians from different parts of India and Germany performing together,” Lisa Dias-Noronha Vice President of Indo-German Educational and Cultural Society, Goa said in a statement.
“As wind instrument musicians, they have been especially invited to Goa to revive Goa’s rich history of wind instrument playing,” she added.
The orchestra members from India include members of the Goa String Orchestra and past finalists of the David Menezes National Violin Competition. Its German members have been sent by the Deutscher Musikrat and are the winners of the German National Music Competition (Jungend Musiziert).
After playing at the Goethe Institute invited by the Music Society of Pune on January 2, the orchestra will play for a chamber music concert at the Institute Menezes Bragança hall on January 5 at 7 pm .
The grand finale will be the concert in Old Goa on January 7 at 7 pm.
Also another first, the orchestra, working under two conductors Joris Decolvenaer and ProfUlf Klausenitzer, for the first time held rehearsals open to the public where people could interact with the musicians and watch how the conductor moulds the orchestra into one vibrant instrument. The fourth edition of the Indo German Confluence is in collaboration with the Directorate of Art and Culture, German Music Council, the Institute Menezes Bragança and Archaeological Survey of India.
