Renowned Moroccan pianist, Marouan Benabdallah, at Hope Centre for of Excellence on the eve of his scheduled concert at Patkai Christian College. (Morung Photo)
Acclaimed Moroccan pianist, Marouan Benabdallah, will be performing live for the second time in Nagaland Tuesday evening at Patkai Christian College. The 35-year-old pianist recent performance highlights include the Aspen Music festival, the Gstaad Music Festival; an extensive tour of India that featured the young pianist in a recital setting as a soloist with the Symphony Orchestra of India in performances of Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1, Philharmonic Orchestra of the Teatro Comunale of Bolognain Italy and Buenos Aires Philharmonic. At an interaction with The Morung Express here at Hope Centre for Excellence, Benabdallah said the Patkai concert will comprise of two parts - the first part meditative with minimalist music and the second part more of standard repertoire. Besides the concert, Benabdallah said his schedule includes giving ‘individual master classes’ to young musicians at Hope Centre (Nov 6 & 7) and ‘group master classes’ at Patkai (Nov 7). The renowned pianist who landed in Dimapur Monday after taking the 8-hour Paris-Mumbai flight on Sunday, said he had already performed in Mumbai two weeks back and scheduled to perform in Delhi and Chennai after the Patkai concert. He said he had been coming to India regularly and found the India audience very receptive. He also disclosed that he has started doing yoga and experimenting with music that would fit that meditative state of mind. Benabdallah observed that Nagas are musically very talented and talents have great affinity with western classical music, as evident in the growing number of musical choirs. To aspiring musicians, he said “If you want to make your dreams come true then you have to believe in it. Music is a very difficult and challenging field as it is very subjective unlike other fields, say sports….and ultimately it is the public who will be the judge”, he said. But when your passion becomes your profession, then music as a profession becomes most rewarding and enriching, according to Benabdallah.Morung Express News