An innovative musical extravaganza

Performances by young people at British Deputy High Commission were
most captivating and innovative musical potpourri

The lawns were meticulously manicured. They were absolutely lush. A gentle, refreshing ocean breeze blew over the locale. Apart from the music that was the programme on Saturday evening, there was the music of the multitude of birds chirping merrily as they came back home to nest amid the thick foliage of the UK Deputy High Commission compound. It was an ideal setting for a musical performance. There was an interlude with a typically British high tea, so appropriate because technically we were in British territory, as all diplomatic missions are supposed to be the territory of the country represented. The high tea was really sumptuous with all the English goodies.

The actual musical performances were so heartening, so reassuring and showed how our city is simply teeming with musical talent. Of course, a lion’s share of the credit for such a lovely performance goes entirely to Rashna Gazdar for training such a large number of youngsters to perform most precociously like seasoned masters.

The young people did not leave their performance wanting in any way. It was the most captivating and the most innovative musical potpourri, encompassing classics, light classical pieces, hits of yesteryear, light vocal pieces, and no matter what kind of music it was, the common denominator was the oozing talent of the youngsters.

Some of them were really young and tiny and it was hard to imagine that their tiny frames carried so many tons of talent, like the tiny Kekobad Marker whose rendition of the first movement of Mozart’s symphony No 40 was so masterly, so professional. The way his fingers just floated over the keyboard to produce the opening strains of the symphony were remarkable, indeed. He certainly didn’t weigh a ton but his talent could be measured in tons.

The most notable feature of the evening was a medley of classical pieces by Rashna Gazdar. Starting with Beethoven’s piano sonata, Fur Elise, she rendered pieces from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake and Vivaldi’ four seasons, ending with the Beethoven’s Ode to Joy, a vocal movement from Beethoven’s Ninth (Choral) symphony. She executed all the pieces very adroitly. This is also the tune of a famous hymn, “Joyful, Joyful we adore thee”.

Rashna was the pianist with the Bombay Chamber Orchestra from the age of nine onwards. There was young Farisa Dar with her rendition of Bach’s prelude in C-major and Chopin’s prelude in E-minor. Her latter rendition was simply superb so interpretive of Chopin’s lively style. She executed the piece most adroitly.

Again, Kekobad Marker stole the show with his lovely toe-tapping rendition of two of Johann Strauss’s waltzes, Roses from the South, and Blue Danube. The vivacious toe-tapping rhythm of the waltzes was simply captivating, being made more so with Kekobad’s deft finger work on the keyboard.

As said above, the programme was a captivating potpourri of music and true to that there also were light pieces, many from yesteryear to evoke nostalgia in those among us who may have been young three to four decades ago.

True to that, there was Brendon Emmanuel, with Rashna Gazdar on the piano, Farrukh Saleiman on the guitar, and Terence Joseph on the portable keyboard. His rendition of Quando Quando must have evoked lots of nostalgia among many having been originally rendered by Pat Boone in the late 1960s. Then with the same accompanying team, he rendered Engelbert Humperdinck’s, “Please release me let me go”, from the mid-1970s. Brendon’s rich, lustrous voice, with perfect control over his cadences, was highly professional and melodious.

Then there was the rendition of Spanish Eyes by Rashna on the piano, accompanied by Terence Joseph and Farrukh Suleiman. It was a vivacious, captivating Spanish/Latin American beat mostly deftly rendered by Rashna.

Fatima Gardezi’s rendition of Lara’s Theme, a masterly rendition, indeed, transported us all back to the early 1960s when Maurice Jarre gave the musical score of David Lean’s Dr Zhivago.

Alizeh Fatima’s rendition from Grieg’s Peer Gynt suite was highly remarkable. Sharmeen Sidhwa’s Marriage D’amour was another very masterly rendition. Alina Merchant played a waltz in G-major. Sukaina merchant’s, Words, again from the early 80s by Begees was really nice, as was Daniel Khan’s Swinging melody.

The musical performance was briefly interrupted by a round of bingo as this was not just a musical entertainment function but also one for fundraising for the victims of the Chitral disaster last year whereby a whole village was washed away by an avalanche.

So the Akram Foundation, headed by former cricketer Waseem Akram and his wife, Shaniera, both of whom were present at the function, decided to come to the aid of the unfortunate surviving children in the village.

Dilnaz Avari narrated how she was besides herself with anxiety when her two sons, who had gone over to Chitral on holiday had a miraculous exit just when the tragedy struck.

She said the funds from the function would go towards seeing to the education of the unfortunate children of the area, children who had survived but had lost all their families.