Sahil Vasudeva is a nervous 31-year-old these days. A classical pianist who is trying to widen the scope of traditional music performances, Vasudeva will be performing for his largest audience ever this Friday. Dubbed ‘The Un-Recital’ by Vasudeva, “[the performance] disrupts the norm of classical music around here [in India],” says the pianist. The Un-Recital combines the works of renowned composers and musicians such as Rachmaninov, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Schumann, Debussy, as well as Vasudeva’s own compositions all of which is against the backdrop of a mixed-media presentation.
Vasudeva is used to a more intimate setting rather than the grandeur of The Royal Opera House where he will perform. For the last two years, Vasudeva’s mission has been to contemporise classical music, by taking bits and pieces of his show to Delhi bars every week, to see how younger audiences would react. It was as much an experiment for Vasudeva as anyone else.
The idea was to literally break down the barrier between artist and audience, so that Vasudeva could have more meaningful engagements with his audience, especially in his mission to revive solo classical music in India. “The way I’ve written the show is that you’re almost sitting on the lap of the pianist. I’m obviously a bit nervous about that [performing at The Royal Opera House], because it’s such a huge space. But I also think it’s going to be cool, it’s going to be fun,” he enthuses.
Reinventing the wheel
After his training under Dr. Nelson Harper at Denison University, Granville, Ohio from 2004 to 2008 and under Irina Biryukova in New Delhi from 2012 to 2015, Vasudeva struggled to find a suitable outlet to perform classical music.
“I was playing solo classical in Delhi and it just wasn’t working. Some of the things I was working with were how do I make it more accessible? Make it less exclusive?”
Vasudeva’s aim was to make the musical experience more young and personal. “Why would audiences want to resonate with something so European in its culture and you know, composed in the 18th century, in the 19th century? I wanted to take the piano out of the concert hall situation, test it socially, in places where you wouldn’t expect to find a piano, and see how the younger audience takes it.”
Describing his show, Vasudeva says, “It’s actually a story, which is my personal experience that [has] been sculpted into this presentation. I’ve taken some liberty on [the music] because it has to match the narrative of the prose, or the narrative that is being expressed.”
All of which is interspersed with some of Vasudeva’s own humorous takes. He adds, “It’s disruptive in the sense that you won’t typically see anything like this in a [classical] recital. There’s an engagement with the audience. It moves away from the typical norms of a recital, which is where the title comes from.”
Litmus test
When asked if the disparity between his regular performance spaces and The Un-Recital’s new destination would prove challenging, Vasudeva says that his only concern is the distance between him and the audience. The media presentation has been modified to fit in with the advanced set-up at the venue. In Vasudeva’s own words, Friday will be a “litmus test performance”, in taking his show to a larger audience.
Vasudeva’s recital is The Royal Opera House’s third production in a new series of performances that is “different, and off the beaten path,” says Asad Lalljee, curator at The Royal Opera House. “We wanted to change the format of typical performances we host, and we wanted to dabble in our own productions, rather than being a rental space,” says Lalljee.
For the musician, the Friday event is especially important as it will mark the transition to a bigger audience, something that can only happen in a city like Mumbai. Vasudeva has taken the piano away from conventional spaces, married it to an art show, and ironically brought it right back to an opera house.
The Un-Recital will be performed at The Royal Opera House, Girgaum on Friday, June 22 at 7 p.m.; more details at insider.in