Prutha Goa

Mary Jo de Mello enthrals us with her rendition of the Portuguese single ‘A Vida’, which has been written and composed by her and Allan Fernandes of Al Productions, with the music being rearranged by Frazer Fernandes. Although the song is part of her 2009 album New Journey, it was rereleased as a music video in collaboration with Monteiro Mancio Films (OPC) Pvt Ltd. The music video will be launched in the international music arena when it is aired on the Portuguese channel RTPi (RTP Internacional) by September 2017.  Mary Jo has been passionate about music since she was only 6 years old. Undoubtedly due to growing up in a family where music was loved and being exposed to a range of  musical genres such as pop, rock, and old country ballads, she was inspired to begin writing and composing when she was 15. At 17, Mary Jo had her own production house, MJ Productions, through which she released her maiden album New Journey, partnering with Al Productions. New Journey, which did well in the

ProMusica brought Goa an excellent performance by musicians Rupert Boyd and Laura Metcalf on the 7th of September 2016. Western classical music is a finely nuanced art form not particularly endemic to Goa. There have been efforts to generate an interest in this genre of music but few seem interested in what is generally considered the taste of the upper classes. This is, however, a thoroughly unfair representation. It is true that some amount of education in the area does help one appreciate Western classical music more effectively. Nonetheless, a true music lover could easily tune into the notes and enjoy the musical scores despite being ignorant of the details of the same. In Goa we are blessed to have groups like ProMusica that promote Western classical music and allow us the opportunity to experience music at a refined level. It is a pity that most Goans do not take the opportunity offered to them at a negligible cost. The audience that did take advantage of the ProMusica presented

Sky High, Goa’s home grown band, has proven just how beloved it is with it endurance through the years. After twenty years of being in the music business, the band is still going strong with most of the bandmates now in their forties. Instead of taking it easy, these passionate music lovers have the aspiration of releasing an album of their original scores. The band came together when Blasio Pinto, Aurvile Rodrigues, Collins Dias, John Sequeira and Elvis Alves met through mutual friends and discovered their shared affinity towards music. In 2014 John Sequeira left owing to ill health and Anthony Fernandes took his place. Though some of the band members have regular jobs, it does not seem to deter them from coming together for band rehearsals. ‘We manage somehow,’ says Blasio Pinto, understating the zeal these men possess for music. He continues, ‘When you like something, you make time no matter what.’ It is when you see Sky High in action and watch the forty something Blasio, who is th

Operatic singing is not a musical genre usually associated with Goa, although the state is far more steeped in Western culture than most of India. Oscar Castellino, who is performing at Goa Chitra Museum, Benaulim, on the 8th of March as part of his continuing Operawala Tour of India, brings his baritone voice to amaze and mesmerise his audience. In association with the Italian Embassy Cultural Centre, Oscar, or Operawalla as he calls himself, is commemorating the centenary of composer Francesco Paolo Tosti with a concert tour of India. An alumnus of the Royal College of Music, UK, Oscar Dom Victor Castellino already has an impressive body of work with roles as Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet with Opera at Bearwood; Dancairo in Carmen ; Mahival, which is a lead role, in Sohini and Mahival , an Urdu opera at the Southbank Centre and others. He is, furthermore, scheduled to play the lead as James Meredith in Kommilitonen! with Welsh National Opera young artists in July 2016. Oscar had an

The journey towards the Ketevan World Sacred Music Festival begins with the birth of an idea to promote peaceful coexistence, an ambitious project spearheaded by Professor Santiago Lusardi Girelli who has been part of the Visiting Research Professor Programme of the Anthony Gonsalves Chair in Western Music for the last two years. ‘Last year we had some collaborations with a sitar player, a table player, a bansuri player, an Indian singer. So from those experiences I thought we should try to build a full festival of sacred worship,’ says Prof Girelli of his motivation to bring different traditions and religious music together under one standard. It started with initial discussions about the venture with Goa University, some members of the Goa University Choir and Rudolf Ludwig Kammermeier, who partners with Prof Girelli in his work in Goa. Later the project was broached with the Church in Goa, the Archaeological Survey of India, some European universities, the Government of Goa, and the

She arrived a little late, apologising at every opportunity. Cielda Pereira at my first meeting with her was far from my expectations of a famous singer; a demure, modest and down-to-earth person, so simple in her approach to life. One would have expected a few airs thrown about following the stupendous success of the Konkani film Nachom-ia Kumpasar , but there was to be none of that. Cielda’s earliest memory of singing is at the age of three in school, rendering 'My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean'. From then on she always found herself participating in some sort of singing activity or the other be it the mando, patriotic songs, group or solo singing. A student of Chowgule College, she competed in Voice of Chowgule’s without success at her first attempt. However, her participation in the next three years saw her take the title every single time. ‘Everybody knows me for Nachom-ia Kumpasar , but I had already participated in Kingfisher Voice of Goa (2013) before that,’ says the secon

Music is this man’s life: that is the first impression of Aurvile Rodrigues who has his own recording studio called Audio Masters, connected to his house. At the age of four he took to the drums and has been playing since then. He plays the bass guitar apart from the drums but his chief preoccupation is his recording studio. Aurvile sings too, and has sung many Konkani duets with his wife Trisca of DnT fame. He reminisces about his younger years studying in Kuwait. Aurvile’s father was employed with a radio station in Kuwait and as a boy Aurvile would help his father and this played no small role in prompting his desire to work as a sound engineer. He says, ‘There I learned to put spools…in the old days they had spools for recording. Now everything is computerised. I always had this thing about going to the studio and sitting down with the announcers.’ After the 1990 invasion of Kuwait by Iraq, Aurvile came back to Goa with his family and has been playing professionally in bands ever s