Italian musician’s workshop at DPS

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, October 15

Italian jazz artiste Matteo Fraboni conducted a two-day workshop at Delhi Public School(DPS). He also presented a concert in collaboration with Indian classical and folk artiste Nimisha Shankar at the end of the workshop.

Fraboni, who said that music is his reason to be, calls himself a fan of Indian music. “It’s a misconception that Indian musicians have limited knowledge of western concepts of music. Also, the variations found here, from Carnatic to Hindustani classical, are amazing and since music has a universal language, the international collaboration with Indian artistes present infinite opportunities,” he said. He has collaborated earlier with a number of Indian artistes, including jazz pianist Anurag Naidu and violinist Sharat Chandra Srivastava, while performing in a series of concerts across India. “Every time I come to India I try to explore and absorb as much as I can. The last time I was in city, I clearly remember the kindness of the Sikh people I met on my way to the Golden Temple,” he said.

Fraboni is keen to collaborate with artistes from different cultural backgrounds and his jazz group is an example. “My trio is the usual ensemble, I adopt to play jazz standards. We usually work on specific arrangements and leave space for improvisation and dialogues between the musicians as we build the repertoire. To me it’s really important leave as much space as I can to the internal dialogues between me and the musicians as I consider this behavior essential in the jazz traditions. It makes possible create magic, extemporary speaking, exactly during the performance.” He has also taught at AR Rahman’s academy during one of his visits to India.

Currently he is working on his upcoming album Matteo Fraboni Quintet - India Jazz.

Principal of DPS Sangeeta Singh said that the main aim of designing this music workshop was to teach the musicians of DPS of all ages the basics of playing percussion so that they have the foundation in advance.