At our 10th anniversary monsoon concert, we were pleased to present the Indian premiere of Concerto Grosso in G Major by Johann Valentin Rathgeber. The soloists were all children.
Soloists: Irfan Simphigher, Anthea Dias, Anita Kerketta, Purba Das, Cayla Rodrigues (violins); Gudrun Theodoro Sigurdardottir , cello
Conducted by : Dr. Luis Dias #10thanniversary @childsplayindia September 2019
You can read more about the piece here. Thanks to Lisa Herrmann-Fertig for the music.
Over the years, Child’s Play India has been featured in many national and international publications. In the past few months, we have been written about in The Hindu newspaper, which is a national newspaper widely read across the country. This brought us a fair bit of attention in South India, which was quite exciting!
We were also featured in the August 2019 edition of Reader’s Digest! Read the story here.
We were also surprised to learn that an article about us was in the Gujarati Samachar in July 2019!
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In the run-up to our 10th anniversary monsoon concert, Prutha Goa interviewed our founder Dr. Luis Dias about our work and the concert itself. You can read the interview here.
We were also featured in the Navhind Times and the Herald on the eve of our concert.
Serenade, India’s only portal for western classical music, carried a report on our 10th anniversary monsoon concert. Read it here.
Now that we have our own office space, we have begun to build a music library for children. Access to music is a huge issue for our children as they don’t have personal internet connections or the means to buy music books or CDs. In our library, we will offer music books, magazines and CDs / MP3s to listen to.
If you would like to donate a book to our library, please visit our Amazon Wish List! We would also welcome a donation of a CD player (new or in good condition, please).
(Please let us know if you donate a book to our library as Amazon does not always share the donor’s name and we’d love to inscribe your gift with your name.)
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As I approach the end of my six months here in Goa, we also approach the annual monsoon concert with the charity. It has been a pleasure to work with these children and young people, and to see them grow in confidence. One girl in particular comes to mind; when I first met her, she was incredibly shy, standing at the back and not participating in much of the singing. Fast forward to now, and she always comes into class with a smile and a story for me. She’ll actively take part in class, answer questions and even sing on her own. It is incredibly rewarding to see this kind of progression. I could tell many more stories about any one of these young musicians and I am proud of them all.
After the monsoon concert on the 28th July, the choral project will continue on, with new and passionate choral leaders from the UK and Portugal joining the team. I hope that it will continue to develop and flourish. In the meantime, I am looking forward to my final days here, preparing our concert program. This includes arrangements of traditional songs of South Africa, English music and musical theatre. When I head home, I will take many happy memories and some important life lessons with me. It seems a long time ago now that I was tentatively taking the bus on my own for the first time, exploring the area and meeting many of you. Thank you to Child’s Play for this special opportunity and experience
– Claire Hughes
Hello! My name is Claire Hughes and I’m the new choral director here with Child’s Play India Foundation. I’m originally from the UK, but have now been living here in Goa for a month. Since I’ve started working with the charity, we have established regular rehearsals with children at Hamara and Auxilium schools, and have started a community choir project which is open to all children from the age of 7 onward. I’ve loved getting to know the children in these projects, and I hope they’ve enjoyed working with me so far. It’s also been a pleasure to get to know some of the other teachers here at Child’s Play.
Before coming here, I had previously lived in England and on the East Coast of the USA, but this is my first time in Asia! While there are some cultural differences (and certainly some differences in the weather!), there is still plenty that we have in common. It has been fascinating to see some of the festivals and festivities taking place here, such as the Monte music festival in Old Goa, and the Sur Jahan festival at the Kala Academy in Panjim. These festivals displayed both local and international musical acts, as well as an eclectic variety of genres. And then there was Carnaval! February seems to be a special time to be in Goa and I’m thankful I was able to be here.
This past weekend marked the first performance since I arrived involving some of the children in the project, and I must congratulate the children of Auxilium school on their beautiful singing! As part of a benefit concert with Swedish Choir Sångförenningen Qöhr, (led by Cecilia Q Öhrwall), we collaborated on a Swedish Song together (sung in English). I accompanied as Cecelia conducted, and it was clear that both choirs were delighted to sing with each other. Cecilia has such vibrancy and contagious energy in the way she works with the kids. We’re hoping to invite the Sångförenningen Qöhr back with us next weekend to hold a workshop for all the children in our project, so that we can learn more from each other.
It’s been an intriguing and exciting first month here, and I hope the following months will continue in this fashion. We’ll be looking to hold a summer camp for choir and orchestra later in the year, and we shall be working towards our monsoon concert in the summer. Thank you to Luis and Chryselle Dias for welcoming me on board and for all their help as I settle in!
– February 27, 2018, Panjim Goa
Our 4th Annual Christmas Concert features traditional Christmas music which are always fun and appreciated by the audience. This year, we’re also showcasing some special developments. For the first time, our concert will not have one of our teachers as the concert-master, but it will be led by two of our senior students – Irfan and Natsalene. They will also be the soloists in Vivaldi’s Concerto in A Minor and we are all very proud of them and are wishing them all the best for this milestone. If you’re in Goa on December 17, please come and applaud their progress!
Our Monsoon concert 2017 was a success with over 45 children and teachers participating. The children played ensemble music, solos and duets, which were hugely appreciated by the audience. Here are some images from the concert. More to come!
So proud of our kids! You can watch and hear them in this video of the INK talks event in Goa in September 2016.
We are delighted that our first project was a partnership with ‘Hamara School’, an educational institution for underprivileged children in Goa.
The school is an informal teaching institution and takes care of 80+ children of construction workers, migrants and other low-income families by overseeing their educational and other needs. Most children live in nearby shanties but come to the ‘school’ before their own formal school begins for the day. There are also about 40 children who live in a hostel in the premises. At Hamara school (meaning “Our School” in Hindi) lessons are revised, homework is looked at, problems are sorted. The children are also given meals and help with hygiene. Violin classes began in January 2010.
We were delighted to introduce flute/recorder lessons in 2011 as well. Some of the recorder girls have now moved on to transverse flute. A Cello project with 9 children began in September 2014 at Hamara School. Two children are now learning clarinet (September 2015)
