SPICMACAY — sowing seeds of classical music, dance

Gurvinder Singh

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Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, October 27

As an organisation, the Society for Promotion of Indian Classical Music and Culture Amongst Youth (SPICMACAY) is emphasising on organising programmes on Gurbani and Sufi music throughout the country, said Prof Kiran Seth, the founder of SPICMACAY.

Prof Seth is in the city as the two-day North Zone Convention of the organisation begins tomorrow at Delhi Public School. Other forms of music and dance change over a period of time, but Gurbani and Sufi music has not changed because of the inherent content, which is sublime and uplifting, he says.

Dr Alankar Singh from Patiala is associated with us for long and has performed across the country, he said.

“We also organise performance of other arts, including Malwai Giddha and Bhangra from this region. But the tragedy of our times is that the Malwai Giddha I used to watch 25 years ago is no longer the same. It could be said to be introspective back then, but the tragedy of the times is that it has become more of a show and entertainment. That is true with other forms of art elsewhere as well,” he said.

“Because the society has not been able to connect the youth with something uplifting, they are taking to drugs and other things,” he said. “We need to bring the likes of Bulle Shah to young people to prevent them from straying off the path,” he says.

Speaking about the objective of SPICMACAY, he said it was not necessarily to create musicians, but to make better human beings.

“Not only do we want the youth to realise the importance of rich heritage of Indian classical music and culture, but listening to and learning Indian classical music and dance sharpens one’s concentration apart from bringing him at peace and harmony with oneself, which helps them in other walks of life, making them better professionals as well,” he said.

Seth said to connect children with classical music when they are very young, a programme in music is being started in different playway schools across the country. “Named ‘Aarambh’, the programme will sow the seeds of classical music and dance among children from young age,” said Pankaj Sahai, National Chairperson from the organisation.

The organisation is now taking several steps to meet its goal to make classical music reach all children. He said earlier, programmes by SPICMACAY were only organised in private schools and colleges in cities, but now, these were also being organised in villages. “We are getting very good response from villages,” he said.

There is a 45-minute ‘twitter-model’ programme, in which all students perform along with the artist, and then the artist performs what they do. Then, there is a week’s programme ‘National School Incentive’, in which 500 to 1,000 children from different schools participate together for a week and learn music together.

“Best performing children in such a programme would then be selected for a free month-long scholarship with the stalwarts in Indian classic music and dance in which the student learns under the mentorship of the artist for a month,” he said.

Prof Seth said the organisation has remained a no-profit organisation since 1977 when it was founded and despite several offers to make big offices. “But we didn’t do any deals because the objective of the organisation is to inculcate the concept of ‘nishkam sewa’. That is why instead of corporate backing, we want more volunteers. We would want people to come and be part of this movement,” he said.