Musicmatters – the name says it all.
When Dr. Sumudi Suraweera (PhD) teamed up with Co-Director Eshantha Peiris (MA) to found an institute dedicated to training musicians, they were determined to set the bar as high as they possibly could. Not wanting to stop at merely setting up an ‘institute’ and becoming just another face in the crowd, the duo has gone a step further by encouraging their students to actively engage in improvisation, experimentation and innovation within the classroom walls. They believe a mix of regular concerts and in-house individual and group performances will ensure that a printed certificate is not the only thing their students will take with them when they finally leave.
The idea, says Sumudi, is to get students to enjoy studying music, as opposed to forcing them to listen to lecturers drone on about theory and history with little or no practical study.
“The main difference here is that we focus on performance. At the moment, we see a huge gap in Sri Lankan music. In school it’s mostly theory, if it’s practicals, it’s almost always exam driven. After O/Ls children drop the subject and forget about it. Hardly any of them even touch the piano after that. That’s the way they have been trained. What we’re looking at is to give a combination of theory, history and group play, where you start to enjoy music and get a feel of playing live music,” Sumudi says.
Musicmatters offers a wide range of courses that cater to individual needs and aspirations of different groups of students. One of their key programmes, known as Music for Children and Teens (MCT), for instance, is a dedicated course for schoolchildren of age groups 6-10, 11-14 and 15-18. The course requires a student to attend only one two-hour session per week during which he or she will receive a personalised instrument lesson and a group music theory class at 30 minutes each, followed by an hour long group performance session.
The children programme is our main focus at the moment. We will run a two-hour session; within those two hours we will offer private tuition of their chosen instrument, and have a group session in the end. We’re putting on concerts here, quite regularly for the students, which will be open to the public. It’s important that children gain a real life experience of playing and performing live music,” says Sumudi.
And he should know.
Sumudi has been a performing jazz musician in New Zealand for ten years where he collaborated with various Lankan and Kiwi groups and artists and performed in his own ensembles including the Serendib Sextet and Baliphonics.
Having obtained his PhD in ethnomusicology, a branch of music defined as ‘the study of social and cultural aspects of music and dance in local and global contexts’ this year from the University of Canterbury, Sumudi is a visiting lecturer at the Performing Arts University in Colombo.
“I did a computer science degree in New Zealand. I’ve been living there since I was 12. Later I got onto music and decided to pursue it. I first studied jazz, but then I always had an interest in coming here. Sri Lankan drumming was something that I always wanted to study and, so, my PhD was in low-country drumming. When I started off, I wanted to do all three traditions (including up-country and Sabaragamuwa) but low-country really grabbed my interest,” he recalls.
Explaining his involvement with Musicmatters and, in particular, his partnership with Eshantha Peiris, a respected Sri Lankan musician in his own right, Sumudi says they both had similar ideas about taking music education to the next level.
Apart from the two directors who will also be conducting lectures and classes, there is one other teacher working fulltime at Musicmatters. He is Isaac Smith (BMus), a specialist double bassist from New Zealand.
A product of the New Zealand School of Music Jazz Programme with a major in double bass, 25-year-old Isaac is an established and active member of the Kiwi creative and improvised music scene. In 2004 he was awarded Best Overall Bass Player at the Palmerston North Youth Jazz Combo competition at the Manawatu Jazz Festival.
“I first came here last April for a performance where I collaborated with Sri Lanka’s top musicians. What drew me to Sri Lanka this time was not so much the teaching as the learning. When you teach, you can learn. One of the best ways to learn is by figuring how to teach,” says Isaac.
In addition to Isaac, a part-time staff of about 18 leading names in the Sri Lankan music industry will conduct regular classes and courses at Musicmatters, each specialising in a particular instrument and/or discipline.
Sumudi hopes that their combined efforts will bring about a truly innovative approach to teaching music.
“It’s amazing how much talent there is in Colombo. Even outside of Colombo. Perhaps the talent is not being tapped into enough. Talent is one thing, but directing that talent is something that the environment around you should provide. Talent is only one part of the equation. People whom we know, who are maybe less talented than others but are really hard workers, end up mastering their craft better than the others. I think it’s a flaw with Sri Lanka in general… maybe it’s too much of a general statement to make, but we ride on talent a lot,” he says.
The institute has several soundproof rooms ideal for practising various musical instruments. The courses offered include those for school children, adults, amateurs and even professional musicians.
Musicmatters will have its official opening today, July 25 at 4.30 p.m. at the institution premises located at No. 92/1A, D. S. Senanayake Mawatha, Borella. See also www.musicmatterssrilanka.com. |
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