Goa: Kala Academy’s Western Music Dept Enthralls at Founder’s Day Concert

Malvino Alfonso OCD –

Panaji: The Department of Western Music of Kala Academy Goa organised its Founder’s Day Concert at the Institute Menezes Branganza hall, Panaji. Every year, its founder a Goan musician  Antonio Fortunato Figueiredo, is commemorated in the month of August through  Founder’s Day Concert.

Kala Academy Goa is the premiere institute acting in the field of Art and Culture in the state of Goa. The Department of Western Music is the branch of the Kala Academy Goa that caters to the formation of musicians in the European system of classical music. It can be considered the first school that taught Western classical music in a systematic and scientific method in India. The Department of Western Music formerly known as “Academia de Musica” founded by its Director, Maestro Antonio de Figueiredo. The Department is the continuation of what began in 1952 as Academia de Música da Índia Portuguesa, which merged with Kala Academy in the 1970s, modeled on the musical education given at the Conservatories in Europe

A Goan musician, Antonio Fortunato Figueiredo, who was born on 20 August 1908 in Lotoulim Goa, was the pioneer of this institution. He learned the first rudiments of music at a primary school under a local teacher at the Parochial School. While studying at the lyceum of Panjim, he learned the violin and soon became an accomplished player.  He went to Portugal in 1927 to pursue an arts degree at the University of Lisbon, but transferred to the National Conservatory of Lisbon, graduating with a higher education degree in violin in 1932. He then proceeded to Paris to study at the Faculty of Music and Musicology of the University of Paris.

Every year this great musician is commemorated in the month of August through the Founder’s Day Concert. This year the Concert was held on 22 August.

Presently, this department is headed by Fr. Romeo Monteiro, a Goa diocesan priest and the  Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Goa and Daman. He was a student of Kala Academy under it’s then director, Maestro Lourdino Baretto, a Goa diocesan priest.  Besides earning a doctorate in Canon Law, he has also studied at the Pontifical Institute for Sacred Music and at the Pontifical Athaeneum of St. Anselm, specializing in Composition and in Liturgical Music.  He is the third  Goa diocesan priest after Fr. Lourdino Barreto and Fr. Camilo Xavier to head this department.

The Concert consisted of solos, duos, chamber music, choral recitals and ensembles by the students. The highlight of the evening was Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 70, conducted by Maestro Romeo Monteiro, and played by the Kala Academy Symphony Orchestra. This full-fledged orchestra, consisting of students and teachers, complete with all the sections (strings, reeds, brass and percussion), playing an entire symphony in all its beauty and dynamism, is indeed a considerable achievement for Kala Academy Goa.

The members of the Kala Academy Symphony Orchestra who performed were:

Beverly Vaz (leader), Shannon Fernandes, Krystal de Souza, Carina Paes, Bento Rodrigues, Lemuella D’Mello, Joshua Dias, Vanya Costa Pereira and Gorette Pinheiro (Violin I) ; Adriano Bragança, Niah Noronha, Lisa Bragança, Vivek Costa Frias, Sarah D’Souza, Marina Vaz, Savio Fernandes, Melvin Fernandes and Velerio Mascarenhas. (Violin II); Brandon Fernandes, Pearl Lobo, Leanne Costa Pereira, Katia de Heredia, Nyana, Nicole, Samantha Botelho and Rhea Dias (Viola); Rheanne Mendes, Daanish Crasto, Joann, Tracii Menezes, Rhys Braganza, Tabitha D’Mello, Larissa Fernandes and Alana Andrade (Violoncello); Noel de Souza, Edgar Mendes and Vozlar Pereira (Contrabass); Preethi Coutinho, Roy Menezes, Ian Lobo and Antonio Azavedo (Reed section) ; Kristine Sanfrancisco, Karoline Sanfrancisco, Sofie Sanfrancisco and Deborah Pereira (Brass section) and Ranisa Azavedo (Timpani). Conducted by Fr. Romeo Monteiro, Director of the Department of Western Music of Kala Academy.

Meritorious students, who excelled in various disciplines like Violin, Viola, Cello, Pianoforte, Classical Guitar, Solo Singing, Electronic Keyboard, Solfeggio and Musicology, for the academic year 2022 were awarded prizes at the hands of  Vinesh Arlenkar Member Secretary  of Kala Academy  and Fransquinha Oliveira,  Director of Administration of the Kala Academy Goa. Among the awardees was Ms. Carolyn Nunes, who successfully completed the Graduate Level Course (of 13 year duration) in Pianoforte offered by the institution.

It has been many years that a complete symphony, with a full-fledged symphony orchestra has performed in Goa. The last time Goa heard a Symphony was in the year 2011, when the Santa Cecilia Orchestra of Rachol Seminary played Symphony No. 38 (Prague) by Mozart, under the baton of the same Rev. Romeo Monteiro, who was at the time Professor of Music at the Rachol Seminary. There do exist one or two symphony orchestras in India, with musicians and conductors invited from overseas. But, to have all locals, mostly students, making up an orchestra and interpreting a major work such as a Symphony is a feat indeed!

The entire programme was anchored by Beverly Vaz and Joshua Dias.