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Aria, the western music society of Hindu College organises ‘The Evolution of Music’

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Aria – the Western Music Society of Hindu College organised and performed  – “The Evolution of Music” at Kamani Auditorium on 21st March 2016.

The society showcased various genres and traversed through time to showcase the change in voice and instrumentation through decades and centuries. A group 23 members from Aria performed throughout the show. One of the major high point from this show was the recreation of the “Circle of Life’s” scene from Disney’s The Lion King Broadway.  A highlight of the performance was the 10X10 ft. sun rose in front of a red LED backdrop.

 

One of the key features that the society used for transitions was the LED and the usage of curtain. The LED was a good support showcasing time and the background surrounding that particular time period.  The continuous change in costume kept the stage alive and the structured dances by the singers amazed the audience.

Finally, the upbeat message was left for the audience to “Be Our Guest” which brought in humour and grandeur. Aria’s society members scripted and planned the entire show. The society continues to plan to do more shows in the next academic calendar.

Sidhant R. Seth

[email protected]

 

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Arts & Culture

Ratyaditya: Collaborating for the love of Art

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“An artist can’t be bound by constraints. One has to be completely free and have no boundaries to explore the artist that lies within” – Aditya Verma

Aditya Verma is a 21-year-old painter, photographer and writer. His art forum –“Ratyaditya” believes in no boundaries and promotes fluidity within the organization. In the modern world, where it takes a humungous amount of money to hire a modelling agency, a helping artist or a photographer, Ratyaditya believes in the simple philosophy of ‘collaboration’.  In the same way as a building, built by a 100 workers instead of one, is not only built faster, but has more integrity to its structure, Ratyaditya believes in transcendence in art, achievement and creation of something truly spectacular, happens when we work together.

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The collaborating part might rise a question that, whether the artist’s identity is untouched, when he/she collaborates with Ratyaditya; but the owner is a high believer in giving the individual respect that an artist deserves. Any artist, from a fashion designer to a painter to a photographer to a theatre person is welcome at the studio.

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Any artist can contact the studio as ‘experience is not a hindrance’ to get support from the forum. The art studio believes in equality and boasts of having a 17-year-old collaborator on board. Verma also believes that, no one should hesitate in approaching the studio, but definitely the studio does have its discretion on accepting the proposal or not.

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Aditya, the owner of the studio, has planned a scholarship for artists through which he plans to support the undiscovered artists and give them a platform to showcase their work. He even plans to crack the India art fair by next year. He is very clear that, the studio is not currently looking for corporate funding.  As he believes that art can’t have restrictions and reiterates the philosophy of having no margins.

PhotoGrid_1451294886198The newly opened store has already caught the attention of art critiques and has received applauses by many. Aditya plans to do a showcasing in the month of April 2016. You can find Ratyaditya on Facebook and Tumblr.

Image courtesy: Aditya Verma 

Sidhant R Seth

[email protected]

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Arts & Culture

Trinity College London offers Music Certificate Exams

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“Where words fail, music speaks”- Hans Christian Andersen 

There are numerous certifications in music that are available in India and certification offered by Trinity College of London is one of them.Trinity College London is an international examination board for Performing Arts and English language since 1877. Every year, it conducts assessments across the world to support artists to equally learn music with defined syllabi for each instrument. The board conducts assessment for varied kind of music such as pop, jazz, classical and rock. There are nine grades for assessment that includes the initial level and goes up to Grade 8.

Certificate exams consist of a mini-recital of pieces, including the option to present own choice repertoire. There is no technical work and no supporting tests. After the graded examinations there are varied programmes/diplomas for musicians who plan to concentrate in their principal instrument.

Why should you take up the Trinity Exam? 

Well, it is a very simple answer. Say for instance you’ve recently started schooling. It is obvious the teacher is going to teach you the letters of the English alphabet. The teacher is definitely not going to jump levels and start your childhood by teaching you Shakespeare or Tennyson. Similarly, in a board like Trinity, as it is not “our” music as such, we get to learn the details from the very beginning with the defined syllabus and it keeps getting deeper and elaborate as one climbs up the grade ladder. Trinity works are strictly scrutinized by a number of regulatory boards worldwide. Additionally, if you plan to join an orchestra or apply to a music school, its always a ready qualification with you.

Support from Guildhall School of Music is a stand out. Due to this, the board appreciates diversity in music learning rather than constricting to the previous syllabus that was more restricted towards Classical approach. Some of the famous music schools in the NCR region that follow this board are – The Delhi School of Music, Theme, GMI and many more. These schools and many more in the NCR region, follow this curriculum and the student enrolled in these schools can choose their preferred board. If an applicant is not a part of these schools, he/she could apply to the Trinity Delhi office and request for an examination slot. Similar to our education system, there are many boards that give the opportunity to apply for certificated or diplomas in India, but one should clearly prioritize his/her direction before opting for any particular board.

Recognising that some candidates wish to take a recital-based assessment, Trinity’s certificate exams are designed to offer an alternative to grade exams by focusing on the performance of a complete mini recital. Specifically, certificate exams allow candidates to:  select from three levels of assessment representing three key stages of musical development — Foundation (equivalent to Grade 3), Intermediate (equivalent to Grade 5) and Advanced (equivalent to Grade 8)  programme their own mini recitals drawn from specially provided repertoire lists and their own repertoire choices  gain additional marks for programme planning, programme notes and presentation skills  receive precise and specific feedback to inform their continued musical development  prepare for Trinity’s recital diplomas, which follow the same format as certificate exams. As well as incorporating these innovative features, Trinity’s certificate exams are delivered by a panel of friendly examiners who are rigorously trained and standardised. This aims to create a positive and personalised experience for all candidates.

SUBJECTS OFFERED: 

Solo certificates are currently available in the following subjects: 

Singing 
Piano 
Electronic keyboard (Foundation and Intermediate levels only) 
Flute 
Clarinet 
Saxophone 
Recorder 
French horn 
Trumpet/Cornet/Flugel horn 
Trombone (Intermediate and Advanced levels only)
Tuba 
Violin 
Viola 
Cello (Intermediate and Advanced levels only) 
Double bass 
Pedal harp 
Non-pedal harp (Intermediate and Advanced levels only) 
Guitar 
Drum kit 
Accordion

Certificate exams are available for ensembles comprising any combination of instruments and/or voices, including Rock & Pop groups. Information on Rock & Pop group certificates can be found in the Rock & Pop syllabus, available at www.trinityrock.com/syllabus

For more information about application procedure, courses and syllabus, you can go to the following link:

http://www.trinitycollege.com/site/?id=1686&utm_source=jump&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=certificateexams

You can also find your registered Trinity Centre with the following link :

http://www.trinitycollege.com/site/?id=616

Image Courtesy: http://www.trinitycollege.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/discover_banner.jpg 

Sidhant R. Seth
[email protected]

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Arts & Culture

Indian Maestro Zubin Mehta performs at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium

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With ‘The string’ section placing their instruments on stage, ‘The Soprano singer’ practicing some of the highest notes that had to be sung in “Queen of the Night”, and the ‘Wood Wind’ section and the Brass following the routine, it was amidst this dim lit discourse and orchestral grand yellow lighting, that Indian Maestro Zubin Mehta performed at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, New Delhi on 31 October 2015.

The concert began with the entry of concertmaster Mr. Daniel Dodds followed by the star of the evening, Maestro Zubin Mehta. He was extremely professional as was evident from his posture on the raised podium, with his baton out and the orchestra playing “Overture Leonore No. 3” composed by Ludwig Van Beethoven.

The overture from Beethoven’s only Opera “Fidelio” ensued a sense of joy, happiness and amazement in the entire Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium. The world renowned Indian conductor of Western classical music was so much into conducting that, while enforcing the dynamics towards the violin section, his baton flew and was thankfully caught and handed over by a violist. Maestro didn’t blink nor stopped for a second and the entire audience remained dumbstruck seeing his sharp focus and patience towards his art. After the powerful overture, the alluring Ms. Greta Bradman took over the stage for the rendition of one of the most popular arias of Classical Music – “Der Höelle Rache” or “Queen of the Night” composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Ms. Bradman awed each and every soul with the flute like notes in this aria which was followed by “Leonara’s aria” composed by Giuseppe Verdi. The emotion gripped the audience so much that many even cried during this aria. Finally, one of the most romantic arias– “Una voce poco fa” by Rossini was performed. Greta stole many hearts in that aria with her flirty moves. Her notes were very fluid in nature that set the mood of the aria straight.

After a brief break, one of the most beautiful symphonies was played by Mr. Mehta. He conducted vivaciously throughout the four movements of “Symphony No. 2, Op. 73, D Major” composed by Johannes Brahms. The final Allegro con Spirito movement literally swayed the audience from their seats and Mr. Mehta with the Australian World Orchestra received a standing ovation. “Encore! Encore!” was filled and Mr. Mehta gifted the audience by conducting a mellifluous waltz by Dvorak. Undoubtedly, he flabbergasted Delhi’s audience with his dynamism and persona. Definitely the Maestro came, he conducted and he conquered!

 

Sidhant R. Seth
[email protected]

Image Courtesy: Sidhant R. Seth

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DUB News

DU warns students admitted under sports quota for not playing for their colleges

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Every year more than 3,000 students seek admission in the University of Delhi through sports quota. Sports quota is an admission procedure available for those students who define excellence in their sport and represent the college granting them admission in various tournaments in the university as well as outside.

Recently, the University expressed concern over students who are admitted via sports quota disagreeing to represent their colleges in inter or intra university events and concentrate more on the National or International games. The University of Delhi’s officials have asked the colleges to cancel admissions of those students who are disagreeing to represent their colleges in these events. The Sports Council of DU hs sent a letter to all colleges for the same.

Sources reported that the cut-off for these candidates is usually 20-30% lesser than the others and there is even a relaxation in the attendance for these candidates. It becomes a matter of fraudulent actions if they aren’t playing for their college in the University events.

Sidhant R. Seth

[email protected]

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Features

QWERTY: Good Service- an app for all your service needs

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After trying his hands at consulting for a few years, Vipul Agarwal an alumnus from Stanford University got in touch with Ruchir Jain from IIM Ahmedabad for enterprising in a totally new venture – Good Service.

The initial conceptualization of Good Service started when Vipul was working at a consulting firm. His family and friends would contact him to find out details about professional service providers. It would range from the simplest task such as finding an electrician to booking a movie ticket. “We had to create the initial spark….. and after that the entire team contributed towards providing the final product.”

Good Service is an app as well as web based service wherein a customer could Whatsapp, Text, e-mail or call the firm and ask for any service that they demand. The service was started with connecting local merchants on a very small scale. As time progressed, the company witnessed a significant growth. Good service expanded into many verticals and started getting in touch with bigger players. The company’s area of practice now ranges from movie ticket sales to electrical fittings.

Good Service currently has a whooping number of 60-70% of DU Students as their full time employees. In the near future the company plans to expand in different cities throughout India.

For contact details one could e-mail at the this e-mail address:- [email protected]

 

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Top Picks

Personalities who are ‘successful’ college dropouts

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It’s a very common belief in India that one must pass out of a top ranked university or some IIT / IIM to be successful in life. Quite not so! Here’s a list of a few people who dropped out of college and are way more successful than a person with a degree.

Bill Gates

I bet we all know him. Did you know that he went to Harvard University (don’t we all dream of that?) and bade it goodbye after three years of his study. Well, if he hadn’t dropped out, you wouldn’t be reading this article because PCs wouldn’t have been made that popular. Undoubtedly, he revolutionized the computer’s usefulness by making Microsoft such a huge brand.

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Image source: telegraph.co.uk

Steve Jobs

He attended only one semester at the Oregon’s Reed College. Sources report that he returned to audit a class in Calligraphy. If he hadn’t learnt Calligraphy, probably we wouldn’t be enjoying the variety of fonts that any laptops (primarily Apple) cater to. He also quit his first job but on the brighter side gave us the biggest fruit of this modern generation – Apple.

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Image source: 9to5mac.com

James Cameron

James went to the Fullerton College to study physics. Probably, there he realized that he needed to make some of the most unimaginable movies in the world. He offered his audience, the classic – Titanic and Avatar. All thanks to Star Wars (1977) that got Cameron imagining sci-fi movies that weren’t so common back then.

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Image source: thefilmstage.com

Lady Gaga

Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta aka Lady Gaga bid adieu to New York University at the age of 19 to change the pop scenario in the music industry. Who would have known at that time that this girl would end up receiving 6 Grammys, 13 Guinness World Records, 3 BRIT Awards, 7 Billboard awards and many more? How can we even forget to mention her performance at the Oscars in 2015!

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Image source: last.fm

Mukesh Ambani

Yes, Mister Ambani was studying at the Stanford University when he got a call from Dhirubhai Ambani to join him in RIL. Thus, bye-bye Stanford! I bet he is way richer and successful than his classmates then at Stanford.

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Image source: theunrealtimes.com

HONORARY MENTION

Mark Zuckerberg

The inventor of the most popular social networking site- Facebook. Didn’t you just open this link through Facebook? Quite possible! A big thanks to him as he reconnected all our childhood friends and families living far off and introduced a whole new concept of Social Networking to the world. It is quite true that to move ahead you have to leave the current position. He knew it that the time is right, and he left Harvard University to head to west of California and finally gifted the world with Facebook.

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Image source: fastcompany.com

Guess it’s not that bad being a dropout. Probably, one doesn’t necessarily require a college degree to become a CEO.

Anyways, exams are on. Back to the books!

Sidhant R. Seth

[email protected]

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Features

Top societies in DU fests season 2015: Lady Shri Ram College for Western Choir

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lady shri ram college

Every year, societies from colleges across the campus compete neck to neck and put up spectacular performances during the fest season. This year too, saw certain teams shine a little brighter than the rest. We bring you a series with college societies that put their heart and soul into their respective fields and took home the top prizes at various cultural fests.

The best college society in each category was selected by creating a tally of the top 3 positions at competitive events held during various cultural fests of this season. Whenever a society won the first prize they were award 3 points, for the second position they received 2 points and for the third position, 1 point was added to their tally.

For the Western Choir category, Western Music Society of Lady Shri Ram College scored the maximum points in the tally. LSR’s 22 points were followed by the music society of Sri Venkateswara College that scored 14 points. St. Stephen’s College bagged third spot scoring 22 points.

 

The Winning Society at a glance

Western Music Society, Lady Shri Ram College

LSR WMS’s competitive piece for this year is a medley of two songs, ‘Misty’ by The Real Group and ‘Jailer’ by Asa (self-set arrangement). The theme for this year’s piece is to break through from the signature jazz melodies and move into a more creative space. The piece is a blend of two different styles that we love: intricate jazz harmonies with subtle dynamics and a full-blown choir arrangement of an up-tempo R&B song with an impactful ending. Talking about the secret of success,

Abhilasha Sinha, President (WMS) said, “The only ‘secret’ there probably is is an intensive vocal warm-up and a lot of choir blending and dynamic exercises, and a whole lot of food and selfies. The main reason why WMS is one of the good choirs is because we love singing together on stage, and we perform as one on stage and not separate parts.”

Performing members: Abhilasha Sinha (Conductor), Anna Charenamei, Cindy Z Tlau, Tsungronmenla Imchen, Sparsh Bajpai, Saakshi Varsha Lama, Rhea Mahanta, Bhavya Kulshreshtha, B.Ruth Lalrinawmi, Lentina Longkumer, Lucy T. Vaiphei, Ankita Naik, Megha Lama, Roli Yeptho, Thinley Chodon, R. Lalthansangi, Glory Salam, Hlingdeikim Changsan, Satwiki Adla and Sharanya S.

Winners Tally: Western Music Society (LSR)

13 fests were included in our analysis for this series. Out of the considered fests, 9 had conducted a competitive Western Choir event. Here is the list of winning performances by WMS (LSR):

Ist Position: Tempest 2015 (Miranda House), Mecca 2015 (Hindu College), Nexus 2015 (Sri Venkateswara College), Reverie 2015 (Gargi College), Ullas 2015 (Kamala Nehru College), Surmanjari (Kirori Mal College) and Rachnotsav (Hans Raj College).

IIIrd position: Montage 2015 (Jesus and Mary College)

(Hover on the icons below to know more about their victories)

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Apart from the victories mentioned above, WMS also bagged the first position at St. Stephen’s College, Delhi Technical University, Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies and BITS Pilani.

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Hans Raj College

Sri Venkateswara College and GTBIT win big on the second day of Hans Raj’s Confluence’15

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Oorja, the western dance society of Hans Raj College organized Groove’15, the western dance competition at Confluence 2015 under the leadership of their president, Virendra Singh. The competition saw 11 teams participating and competing for the title of the winner.  Mr. Apoorv Raghav was the judge for this event. He is the choreographer for Oorja and several other teams of Delhi University. After some brilliant performances showcased by colleges like Mata Sundari College, Maharaja Agrasen College, LSR and many more, Sri Venkateswara College’s dance society ,Verve shared the first position with Guru Teg Bahadur Institute of Technology’s dance society, Natya. GGS’s dance society, Misba took over the second position and IIT Delhi’s V-Defyn was placed third.

A variety of props were used throughout the events such as masks, hats, chairs, baseball bats and even a skeleton! A medley of Punjabi, Hindi and English songs were performed during the competition. The entire auditorium was filled with students cheering for their respective colleges. Oorja also performed at this event. They performed a theme-based dance related to “Life of a Convict”. Towards the end of each team’s performance, they were gifted with a memento of their team’s photograph by the hosting dance society.

The afternoon of day 2 at Confluence saw DJ Shival playing some famous Bollywood chart-busters. His performance succeeded in making the fest even livelier. His hour long performance saw the students of the college, enjoying and grooving to both, Bollywood and Western music. Crowd kept moving in towards the end of the fest. This marked the end of Day 2 of Confluence 2015.

Image Credits: Iresh Gupta for DU Beat

 

Sidhant R. Seth
[email protected]

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