In 2008, the singer, composer, conductor, and film director A.R. Rahman “established the K.M. Music Conservatory (KMMC) in Chennai, which runs a special project called the Sunshine Orchestra, which provides music education and exposure to underprivileged kids,” writes Rishita Roy Chowdhury in Saturday’s (4/20) Sunday Guardian (India). “More than 140 students have been trained under this project—the eldest being 22 years old, and the youngest, a girl named Priyadarshini who is learning the trombone, six years old.… What forms the core of the Sunshine Orchestra is the most advanced batch of students at the KMMC, comprising nine exceptionally talented musicians…. The Sunshine Orchestra’s conductor [since 2012] is Srinivasa Murthy…. ‘All my Sunshine kids were first-generation musicians and were used to local music more than Western classical. Teaching them was a big task,’ [says Murthy]. ‘My kids can now play Indian and Western music alike, alongside folk, Bollywood and jazz.’ … The KMMC faculty is drawn from around the world, with specialists in musical performance, musical theory and analysis, music history and music technology on staff.… The Sunshine Orchestra project started on a small scale…. They aim to train more students in the coming years.”
Posted April 24, 2019
