On the occasion of World Music Day, Shekhar Ravjiani takes a break from work for a quick chat with Christy Varghese
Singer, music director, record producer and occasional actor, Shekhar Ravjiani happens to be a busy man. Currently in Singapore, he talks about his School of Music, which will celebrate its one year anniversary tomorrow.
How has your experience been providing personalised musical training to handpicked students across 21 campuses of the Global International Indian School?
It has been an exciting and satisfying journey. We are celebrating one year of GIIS-Shekhar Ravjiani School of Music, and I want to say despite the pandemic-related challenges, this has been a successful journey.
The School of Music was a meeting of minds for me and GIIS, as both parties wanted to encourage talent in youngsters. Children are our future, and I realised that many of them are blessed with oodles of talent.
The first year had 14 graduates from Singapore, Japan, UAE and Malaysia. Each one of them was mentored by me. We had one-on-one sessions wherein I listened to them, shared my inputs, gave them assignments on the parts they needed to work on et al. Six of them have now been selected for the second level of the mentorship programme for 2021.
This year, we have seen a five-fold increase in the number of aspirants and we are excited at the prospect of working with more children.
While online classes are a handy tool in the backdrop of the pandemic, did you experience any difficulties while virtually imparting musical training?
I agree virtual classes cannot replace physical classes, no doubt. However, given the situation, virtual classes worked out fine. GIIS is a smart school. Its infrastructure is state-of-the-art. The founders have really invested in making it a school of the future. GIIS gave us a great licensed platform to hold virtual classes, gave us audio-visual equipment that was of excellent quality, and the students were given ample time and resources to practise and perfect their art. Of course, there were some technical glitches like internet lag, but that was nothing compared to what the students walked away with. Overall, there were more positives than there were hiccups, and I am glad we did not let the pandemic dampen our spirits.
Do you have any plans for your music school in the near future?
This music school is my dream, so of course, I have a lot of ideas for the school and its talented students. As of now, I am working on pushing them to the next level through proper exposure and guidance. We have planned some collaborative activities with established members of the industry for the students to get hands-on experience. It is going to be an amazing experience for them and this is just the beginning of our school’s journey.
In the future, we will ideate on many such avenues to give the best to our students. Depending on the type of talent pool we acquire, we will determine the type of platforms they will have exposure to. We would not like to disclose much at this time but we are brainstorming and we are positive that many more avenues will open up in the foreseeable future.
We would love to know what are the forthcoming projects you are working on.
We are currently working on the music for Pathan and Jayeshbhai Jordar. Both of these films are set to release later this year.
I also have an extremely interesting surprise in store, something you will be hearing about, soon.
What is your message to people on the occasion of World Music Day?
In a world filled with uncertainty and anxiety, I believe that music has the power to help us all feel centred and loved. Our country has an undiscovered treasure trove of musical talent that is waiting to be heard. I urge music lovers to open their minds and hearts to these musicians and help them find their audience. It is also my dream that more and more kids pursue their love for music and I hope to do my bit in making this happen.