This musical event aims to encourage local young talent in the field of performing arts. As a part of this programme, Prof Miranda, along with ‘Furtados’, has been offering a musical bonanza to Goan music-lovers. Organised jointly by ProMusica, Furtados, Angels Resort, and Clube Harmonia de Margao, this year’s edition of the ‘Young Goan Talent in Concert’ will witness the participation of nine performers including a singer - all trained in Western classical music (vocal or instrumental). Prof Miranda who will turn 84 next month, thanks music for keeping her ageless and energetic.
“It is music that makes you feel young at heart. It is as if you never get old. I still remember me, as a three year old, sitting in front of my father, he playing the piano and I listening to his notes. It was at that tender age that I fell in love with music and this engagement continues even in my eighties. Eight decades of this romantic relationship with music has kept my soul alive and vibrant. Though today I have reduced the number of stage performances, my teaching still continues.”
Prof Miranda herself went to Germany to learn music on scholarship took up a job as a music teacher at Hochschule Fur Musik Freiburg. From here, she voluntarily retired in 1992 and returned to Goa. Here, she was appointed as the director of Western Music at Kala Academy from 1997 to 2004 and during this tenure, she took the initiative to organise numerous shows exhibiting Goan talent alongside international artists. “My father used to play violin and made me sit and listen to it when I was three or four. This exposure to western classical music in such tender age developed as years passed.
After the liberation of Goa in 1961, the Portuguese musicians and singers returned to their country and Goans tried to fill that gap,” she remembers.
“This concert will feature young Goan talents that have done or are doing exceptionally well in music. The level of the students at this concert is Grade 8 and beyond, going up to the Licentiate Diploma Level (LTCL),” briefs Christopher Gomes, partner, B X Furtado & Sons and L M Furtado & Co (popularly known as Furtados). Christopher, also the local area representative of Trinity College of Music, London, shares, “As a representative in Goa, it is my responsibility to make arrangements for the smooth conducting of the various music exams the college takes for aspiring students here. Last year, around 2500 students appeared for the music exams,” he mentions.
After grade 8 of music exams, there are three professional diploma exams that qualify a candidate to either teach or perform as a professional. The first professional diploma post grade 8 is called the Associate of Trinity College of Music London (ATCL), second level is called the Licentiate of Trinity College London (LTCL), and the final level is called the Fellow of Trinity College London (FTCL), briefs Christopher. Trinity’s composition diplomas reward the composer’s ability to respond appropriately to set musical briefs, through the application of suitable compositional devices, to create original works. While LTCL is equivalent to the final year of an undergraduate degree the FTCL is equivalent to a postgraduate course at a conservatoire or university.
“It was to fill the gap for local music talent that people like late Eric Menezes Maria Fernandes Costa Souza and David Menezes and I came together to put together some 20 concerts in Goa, visiting people’s homes to invite them to attend the shows for a mere Rs 5 per ticket during those days,” recalls Prof Miranda who after becoming the director of western music at Kala Academy, managed to invite the students from music schools in Delhi, Pune and Bengaluru to perform in Goa. “For the initial few years, it was Jack Sukhija of Panjim Inn and Anju Timblo of Cidade de Goa who supported our initiative and offered accommodation for the international artists, before we could manage to run the show on our own,” recalls the thankful professor. , mentioning that artists, singers and musicians would come from countries like Germany, Austria, Poland, England, Switzerland and France. “They were not highly paid and sometimes had to bear on their own travel expenses too,” adds this music teacher recalling old days. Even at this ripe age with her amazing and untiring zest and zeal she continues to hold concerts with the sole aim as to encourage budding talents.
