User:Kolkata Music Academy
KOLKATA MUSIC ACADEMY-
[edit]Kolkata Music Academy is an amazing extraordinary family of music which preserves the essential rarity and highest class of harmonized art of Western Classical Music in Kolkata,INDIA at both educational and performing levels. A non profitable organisation of European Classiacal Music) was founded by our Principal/Conductor, Maestro Abraham Mazumder in 1983..It has been the prime string ensemble of Kolkata since its inception. On 28th march, 2009, the Academy was inaugurated by Mr. Russi. H. Mody, the former Chairman and Managing Director of Tata Steel( formerly known as TISCO) and a leading member of Tata Group.
The Academy persues the goal of sharing music in the process of education and performance. KMA also aims to reach out people from all walks of life to spread the joy of music.
INAUGURATION OF THE ACADEMY
[edit]On this auspicious occasion of the Academy’s formal inauguration, the members of Kolkata Music Academy wish to express their deepest gratitude to Mr. Russi. H. Mody (former Chairman and Managing Director of Tata Steel and a leading member of the Tata Group) who inaugurated our Academy, we are honoured by his gracious presence. We wish to express our heartfelt gratitude to Mr. Guenter Wehrmann, Consul General and Mrs. Andrea Fischboek(our Guest-in-Honour), Consular Attachée, Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany, Kolkata, for generously donated two pianos to the Academy. These beautiful instruments will remain with the Academy as invaluable educational assets for generations to come. We earnestly thank Dr. Reimer Volker, Director, Goethe-Institute/Max Muller Bhavan, Kolkata for being our Guest-in-Chief.
The evening’s programme journeys seamlessly through a wide variety of classical music from different periods, from the nostalgic contrapuntal textures of Baroque music and the perfect counterpoint of J. S. Bach’s Violin Concerto in A minor, to the scintillating beauty of Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, the nimble classicism of F. J. Gossec’s Gavotte, the bold trumpet airs of Jeremiah Clarke’s Trumpet Voluntary and Handel’s Chorus from Judas Maccabeus, and Beethoven’s ever-transient moods of passion in his Minuet in C. These snippets from the vast repertoire of classical music represent the ardent aspirations of Kolkata Music Academy and the common musical aim that the members of the Academy share.
Abraham Mazumder(Principal/Conductor)
[edit]The leading Indian Conductor and pedagogue as well as a distinguished violinist/ violist, Principal and founder of Kolkata Music Academy. He is a well-known personality in Kolkata’s Western Classical Music world for last 35 years. Abraham was initiated into Western Classical Music during his school days in the Oxford Mission, Kolkata way back in 1970s under the guidance of his teacher, Father Theodore Mathieson, who was a British cellist. For Abraham this soon developed into a passion – a passion that never waned over the years. His talent and dedication duly earned him recognition and distinction from Trinity College of Music, London as he earned ATCL and LTCL in violin and came first in Asia.
Abraham Mazumder joined Calcutta Boys School (1976), and then went on to La Martiniere for Boys (1983) where he worked for 25 years as a Music teacher, Choir Master and Orchestral head. He formed his own Classical Orchestra at the premises of L’Alliance Francaise de Calcutta (Park Mansion), L’Atelier de Musique in 1983,(Now christened Kolkata Music Academy Chamber Orchestra) which has successfully groomed more than a thousand youngsters till date. He was also associated with Calcutta School of Music for many years. In Kolkta the celebration of World Music Day /Fete De la Musique introduced by him only in the year 1984. KMA orchestra has given several outstanding performances in different prestigious venues.
In 2008, after resigning from La Martiniere for Boys, Abraham has formed ‘Kolkata Music Academy’ for music education mainly to promote Western Classical music in a wider form for the privileged and unprivileged children of the City, which was inaugurated by Russi. H. Mody on 28th March, 2009. His latest creative endeavor is Tagore in Symphony, a venture juxtaposing Tagore's song with the influence of European Great Masters. The concert Tagore in Symphony was premiered in Kolkata in November 2007 with a 78-member symphony orchestra, which was scored, composed and directed by Abraham himself.
In early 1976, Abraham met Goutam Chatterjee, the legendary singer-songwriter and became closely associated with his music to form ‘Mohiner Ghoraguli’, India’s first rock band of which Abraham was a founder-member. Again after 30 years, the last tribute concert of Mohiner Ghoraguli at Nicco Park on January 5, 2008 saw an unprecedented outburst of more than 20,000 enthusiasts, who bore witness to the first historic concert in Kolkata along with a 100 member Philharmonic Orchestra, under the baton of Mazumder. In April 2012 he was invited by Munich Philharmponic Orchestra, Germany to conduct ‘Tagore in Symphony’ along with compositions by Great Masters of European Classical Music with their Philharmonic orchestra and performed in their festival.