india

Updated: Oct 31, 2019 07:06 IST

At a time when the Naga rebel groups and the Centre are engaged in talks in New Delhi for a final solution to Naga political issue, over a hundred pianists have gathered at Nagaland’s capital Kohima on Tuesday to showcase their talent.

The final rounds of Naga peace talks, which are expected to get over by Thursday, has led to an air of uncertainty in Nagaland with the state government cancelling leaves of bureaucrats and policemen and an alert sounded for any possible law and order situation.

But that hasn’t affected the second edition of three-day Brillante-The Nagaland Piano Festival, India’s only multi-genre piano festival, which got underway on Tuesday at the Regional Centre for Excellence in Music and Performing Arts (RCEMPA) in Kohima.

“It (the uncertainty) hasn’t hampered us at all. We want to give the message that we can always find something good in any situation. It hasn’t affected us or the participants and we are expecting full houses,” said Khyochano Ngully, the director of the festival.

A reputed pianist and composer, who performed in several countries, Ngully’s idea of showcasing the piano, one of the most loved musical instruments in Nagaland, led to the first edition of the festival in 2017.

“The idea was to promote emerging talents. Ours is the only multi-genre piano festival in the country that has performances by world-class pianists, a competition section and a pedagogy section,” said Ngully.

The piano first reached Nagaland in the early 1900s with the Christian missionaries. Now the state has several reputed pianists, composers and around 5,000 students learning the instrument across the state.

Besides performances, the festival has a competition section in two categories - for those under 16 years of age and another for those who are above 16. This year, 45 applications were received from all over the country. After screening, 14 were left for the semi-finals and finals.

“The festival is organised really well. It’s nice to see the state government supporting a Western music festival. The competitors are quite diverse, performing in different styles and of different ages,” said Aman Mahajan, a Bengaluru-based pianist and composer, who is the judge at the competition.

The festival got off to a musical start on Tuesday with 102 pianists, young and old, who performed together for a song.

“This is my first time in Nagaland and also the festival. It’s very impressive to see so many talented musicians. The musical standards here are amazing,” said Natallia Kapylova, a pianist from Belarus who will be performing at the festival.

Speculations on what would happen if the final agreement doesn’t get inked by the October 31 deadline and poor condition of the road leading to Kohima notwithstanding, organizers are positive that the music festival will leave a positive impression.

“I believe these things (the talks, uncertainty) keep happening, but life has to go on. No matter what happens, we always have to look for the beautiful and the meaningful and also something that feeds the soul, such as music. We can’t let fear control what we do in any situation,” said Ngully.