Visually challenged students from the Santa Cruz High School interact with the gramophone, vinyl and shellac disks guided by record collector Leaxan Freitas at the ‘Cantaram for the Community’ concert.
Over 60 students, including Divyanga children and adults, were treated to a Konkani music spectacle at a student concert held as part of ‘Cantaram for the Community’ – an initiative by the Dona Paula-based Communicare Trust as part of its 20-year anniversary campaign.
The concert, a musical outreach initiative designed to reintroduce youngsters to the familiar-yet-forgotten melodies of classic Konkani music, was held recently at the Santa Cruz High School near Panaji, for an audience that included students associated with the National Association for the Blind (NAB), differently-abled adults from Little Angels Home in Chorao and wards of the host school.
“This objective of the concert was to reach out to communities like the NAB and the specially-abled wards from the Little Angels Home. NAB students, who are visibly impaired, got to touch and feel the vinyl and shellac discs that played popular Konkani songs,” said Nalini Elvino de Sousa, manager at Communicare Trust expressing her wish to reach out to more schools and Divyanga children with disabilities. “Schools are where we should start, because otherwise children don't listen to this kind of music. Hardly 1 % children are aware of this kind of music,” she claimed.
By blending live performances by the band Entre Nos with archival vinyl recordings played by record collector Leaxan Freitas, the student concert brought alive several unknown stories and sounds related to Konkani to the students.
Works of stalwarts in Konkani music like C Alvares, Joe Rose, Frank Fernand, Ophelia Cabral, Oslando De Souza, Robin Vaz, Antonette Mendes (many of whom are now unfamiliar to younger generations) were included in the concert’s playlist. Entre Nos band-lead Omar de Loiola Pereira, aided by Nigel Vales, Nadia Rebelo, Ginelle Fernandes and percussionist Nahil Flores, performed songs like Molbailo Dou and Claudia, Pixem and lesser-known numbers like Pipirmit and Moga, Aiz Pasun Hanv Ankvar.
The performances were interspersed with Freitas playing the vinyl and shellac disc records and enlightening the youngsters about the workings of the gramophone. He also spoke about the lives of the Konkani artistes whose songs were being played.
Speaking about the importance of such concerts, Freitas said, “All these Konkani songs came from the Goan community for the Goan community. And today, these songs don’t travel as much. That’s why we are having this event; and who better to do it for, if not children? They may not get the exposure otherwise to artists and composers who are not as famous as, say, Lorna or Chris Perry; we want to familiarise the children with the names, the tunes and the songs.”
Gioma Rodrigues, a teacher at Santa Cruz High School, shared that she learnt a lot more about the music and the gramophone, “It has been an awesome experience, something beyond expectation for our students out here; it brought back a lot of memories too, with songs that we had heard, maybe back in our childhood. Witnessing the gramophone playing after a long time was a very nice experience too.”
Mizba, a visually challenged student who took the opportunity to hold the vinyl and shellac discs, shared that it was a great experience, “I think humans are so smart to have developed such a mechanism. I could feel the tracks on the discs and hear the music being played. I had never heard these songs before, but now I think I will.”
