No matter how different they are at personal level, for those who witnessed them playing flute, piano and saxophone together at the Lincoln School in Rabi Bhawan last Saturday evening, they had to admit this that the musical extravaganza was probably one of the best coordinated jamming people have seen before in the capital.
The western classical musical concert at Lincoln School in Kathmandu was all about the quick notes of flute, some sensual rhythms of saxophone and masterpieces of piano. Presented by Mariano E. Abello, founder principal of KJC and Mayo Shimonishi, piano instructor at KJC, Abello says it was a dream come true evening for both of them as these musicians were keen on hosting such a show since very long.
The evening was not about the original compositions of these musicians. It was more of featuring the cover notations of international music maestros. Though both of them were not playing their own compositions, the musical concert was a more of a challenge to them for they had to do proper justice to the musical masterpieces of W.A. Mozart, J. Massenet and Claude Debussy.
Abello who is popular as a saxophonist in town, surprised many by hitting the right notations of flute at the concert and proved that a musician must not limit his/her knowledge to one particular music instrument.
In a pin-drop silent ambience inside the auditorium of Lincoln School, the musical session by these musicians began with Twelve Variations on “Ah, vous dirai-je Maman”, K, 265, a composition by W.A. Mozart and soon they went on playing Meditation from the Opera Thais by J. Massenet. By the time they played Sonata in E Minor for Flute and Piano by J.S. Bach, the audiences present, mostly foreigners, could not stop themselves from applauding and asking for more. Cl. Debussy’s Syrinx was beautifully played behind the curtains, surprising many why the musicians went backstage. Later, Abello explained how Debussy had made this composition in 1913 and had said that this composition was made to be played behind the curtains for it was more a background score.
C. Saint-Saens’ Romance and E. Passard’s Andalouse were the compositions that were added shortly to make the event more lively and romantic. The major attraction of the concert was A. Glazounov’s Concerto in Eb for Alto Saxophone and Piano. It was a power packed musical battle between the P Mauriat’s alto saxophone and piano.
On Japanese pianist Mayo Shimonishi’s part, she was flawless with her piano skills but Mariano E. Abello did not seem comfortable playing the last composition. The fact that he was suffering from cough and cold became more evident when some of his tunes went off note and he even had to pause in between.
After the concert was over, Abello talked about his experience with flute, “Yes, people have often seen me playing saxophone. It was a wonderful feeling today to show them my knowledge on flute too. Sadly, I am not feeling well and it became quite difficult for me to blow the wind between the holes of sax and flute. I must also say this that the flute that I used is a concert flute and I still haven’t been able to play Nepali bansuri properly. It’s too difficult.”
Further, he explained how western classical is different from eastern. “Western notes are simpler and shorter in comparison to eastern ones. Take for example, the smallest distance between two notes is half a step in western classical. On the contrary, eastern is more complicated. Western classical is more based on harmonies while eastern has more to do with moods and variations,” Abello unveiled.
Mayo Shimonishi
Shimonishi was born in Hiroshima, Japan, in 1981. After being pushed by her mom to try the piano at the age of 4, her focus has been on music ever since. From winning talent competitions from the age of 10 and throughout her music education, culminating in her university degree from Kunitachi College of Music, she has been using her extraordinary talents on performing and teaching classical music.
She is a specialist in eurhythmics and will bring this art of teaching to KJC students. It is also not to her disadvantage that before she came to Nepal, she took a course in piano tuning, which is no coincidence since she was in Nepal in October 2008 and saw the need for more tuners. In fact, she says that her last visit to Nepal made her realize how important music education was, and how much she looks forward to contributing in increasing the level of education by joining KJC.
For now, she has promised to work with KJC for the next three years and she says that Nepali students are very enthusiastic in learning music both technically and practically. “The best thing about Nepali musicians is that they have good ears to listen to,” she said.
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