Behind the scenes at the Brillante Piano Festival 2024

Brillante Piano Festival 2024
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

No art form is replete without opposing genres coming together to produce a contrasting, but grand effect, bridging any differences artistes may have beyond their love for art. At the recently concluded Brillante Piano Festival, Bengaluru saw pianists from all over the world come together to present classical, jazz, pop and other musical genres.

Tazim Sheikh, winner of the Brillante Piano Festival 2021 prize in the jazz category, expressed the importance of learning a musical instrument. “Learning a musical instrument is essential for a young child as it can help one regulate emotions; an instrument also has the potential to build motor skills by increasing hand-eye coordination. Besides all this, the healing powers of music are well known,” he says.

At the festival this year, Tazim played ‘Dwam,’ the title track of his album DWAM, and ‘Ether’ — both an unique amalgamation of Indo-classical and jazz music.

Tazim Sheikh
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

The Brillante Piano Festival is perhaps the only piano festival held in India, that not only invites experts from across the world, but also child prodigies. Mantra Upadhyay, a 12-year-old pianist from Gujarat, was the winner of the classical category and runner up in the jazz category this year. 

“I love that the Brillante Piano Festival is open to all cultures, and multiple genres of music. Additionally, there were choir and string quartet performances too this year,” says Shantanu Patel, winner of the Brillante Piano Festival 2019 prize in the classical category. Shantanu was also on the jury panel this year and performed Beethoven’s Les Adieux and Claude Debussy’s Pour le Piano for his audience.

Shantanu Patel
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

The festival welcomes almost as many genres of piano music as there are world cultures. Talking about his specific genre, Tazim explained, “You need to listen to a lot of jazz to truly understand it, especially since it’s not in our blood. The whole philosophy and an understanding of jazz will not come unless one has been in the culture of repression that it is born out of. However, if you delve into the music and listen to it long enough, you can start learning jazz, even though the sound of it is complicated and layered.”

Jazz is an incredibly improvisational genre. “The best part about jazz is that you never know what is going to happen next,” added Pradyumna Singh Manot, one of India’s jazz maestros and a juror at the festival. “It’s like a blind date with fate,” he says.

According to Shantanu, even though the average Indian does not relate to classical music “as much as it does to Bollywood numbers,” it can be enormously beneficial for those dealing with mental health issues. “I have performed with autistic children in the audience and seen them become visibly calmer,” he says.

“I believe classical music reduces negativity and anxiety. I believe there are certain types of music that have frequencies which release hormones that are calming to the ear.” 

The piano is not originally an Indian instrument, but has captured the hearts of many here. “The piano is a versatile instrument and covers a wide range of frequencies audible to the human ear,” says Tazim.

Brillante Piao Festival 2024
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

“I started composing even before I learnt to play the piano. When you can use all 10 of your fingers to play an instrument, you can play 10 different notes at the same time, and that gives you the opportunity to layer your music to an extent where you can sound like an orchestra just by playing a piano.” he adds. 

“Playing the piano takes me to a state of flow, where I forget the rest of the world,” says Shantanu, adding, “The piano is a symbol of grandeur that has a magnetic effect on people. It has an energy that attracts people, in addition to being the easiest instrument to produce sound from.”

The evening ended with a performance by sibling duo Lydian Nadhaswaram and Amirthavarshini, where 19-year-old Lydian played the piano while his sister played the flute and sang along.