Events Roundup

“While the pandemic prohibited public gatherings, it also took away from us the experience of listening to music or witnessing an art form as a collective. The Lilanoor showcase was special for many reasons, but most importantly because it created an opportunity for such a collectivity to emerge. And this collective was true to its very essence of being heterogeneous – namely that people with different interests, tastes and likings, come together, share, create and respond to each other. The audience and even the performers experienced forms of music that they might otherwise not be exposed to. Such an exchange opens up your horizons and repertoire, brings up new ways of looking at music and makes you think outside the ambit of your own musical taste and style. For me it was a beautiful feeling to be part of such an enriching evening with friends.

“Each person who stepped in our brand new little LCVM performance space that night, probably felt that very special and precious emotion, that little something in the air that is so much part of Lilanoor identity, that you can’t create… What we call ‘supplément d’âme’ in French, that you can’t control. That makes each and everyone feel at home, and like we all belong. That’s probably what made me so happy about that beautiful night. Lilanoor students, faculty family and friends just being here for each other, for music and arts sake, just to share with everyone a little piece of their heart and feelings at that very moment, just to be genuinely together, and love music in a sincerely inclusive way, together.

“The showcase was special because it was a reminder of how far Lilanoor has come in these months – in terms of forming good relationships and sharing a passion for music amongst students and faculty – while staying true to what Lilanoor is about.

“Everything that the Lilanoor team puts up has a magical touch – right from the space, to the classes, to the events. Evenings such as the Showcase brilliantly break away from the traditional audience-performer set up to a more egalitarian, empathetic and inclusive platform. The faculty members are so personally invested in the journey of each student and every person in the room, that sharing moments of talent and vulnerability become joyful, safe and inviting.

Lilanoor hosted a series of Music Therapy workshops in collaboration with Blue Tokai. Céline Burlot, faculty member and a trained music therapist shares her experience of having conducted these sessions.

“During these workshops I share the way I use music as a tool for therapy, inviting participants to listen to music « from inside », trying to feel the sensations, the emotions the music is calling in. It’s always interesting and surprising to see how different the experience can be from one person to the other, reflecting our personal history and inclinations. The spaces given to verbalisation and sharing show that it is not easy at the beginning, maybe because the exercise is new, maybe because the participants don’t know each others, but slowly, as we listen to each other, the conversations become longer, deeper I would say. Thanks to music that helps to lift the barriers. We usually end the workshop by a relaxation to enable each one to assimilate and digest what they went through in the session and gently return to our daily lives.”

During this Masterclass, Harmonie Deschamps, member of LCVM faculty , French opera singer and artistic director of Lilanoor Ensemble, had the pleasure of meeting several young singers from Delhi, intrigued by western classical technique, but evolving themselves in other musical genres: Indian music, Folk, pop. If the aim of these two days was not necessarily to dive point- blank into the gigantic universe of Western classical music, we nevertheless sought to draw from this art some tools to develop a finer and more subtle knowledge of our instrument (our body and our voice).

“Through a fairly varied program of individual sessions of vocal technique and group sessions exploring relaxation and breathing technique as well as a more cultural aspect, through discussions and conferences around the history of Western classical vocal music, it was an extremely rich and happy weekend of sharing and exchange. The experience was so pleasant that this same workshop will now be held at LCVM two to three times a year. Hoping to seen you there next time, perhaps?”