Come August and NSHM Knowledge Campus will give you a reason to dance, sing and play musical instruments. The Tollygunge campus announced its partnership with The Bickram Ghosh Academy of Performing Arts on June 20 in the presence of percussionist Bickram Ghosh; his wife and dancer Jaya Seal Ghosh; Cecil Antony, chief mentor and managing trustee, NSHM; and Dileep Singh Mehta, chairman trustee, NSHM.
The certificate courses will include Hindustani vocals, Rabindrasangeet, ghazal/Sufi kalam, contemporary vocals and bhajan in vocals. For those interested in learning musical instruments, sitar, tabla, guitar, keyboard and drums will be in the offing. In dance there will be Bharatanatyam, Kathak, Odissi, contemporary and creative forms.
The partnership means the best of faculty and facility coming together. So while The Bickram Ghosh Academy of Performing Arts will bring in the teachers, NSHM will utilise its infrastructure. Bickram and Jaya too will be part of the faculty. While Jaya will be teaching Bharatanatyam, Bickram will be teaching tabla or drums. He will also start a music appreciation class. The other faculty members include guitarist Indradeep Mukherjee, vocalist Kumar Mukherjee, kathak dancer Somila Bhattacharya and Pritam Sengupta, who will teach drums.
The joint venture that aims to provide an ideal balance to students is open to music and dance enthusiasts outside the institute’s rolls.
“There was a mutual interest in associating with each other. NSHM has a student base who often ask their teachers about music or fine arts and also we saw an area of expansion. NSHM has a full set up of audio-video which will give us a variety of modus to communicate with the students. Also we can take the students’ career to another level by utilising the set up to make productions,” said Bickram Ghosh.
“In this stressful life a balance is required. We felt that the education world is fast changing and pure academics is not the solution. Music, dance, sports — all these contribute much more than pure academics. We have facility for video and sound recording as part of our media studies. Also, we have our FM station so all these facilities can be utilised. Same plans are there for the Durgapur campus as well,” said Cecil Antony, chief mentor and managing trustee, NSHM.
Text: Farah Khatoon
Pictures: B. Halder
