Mountain Music Academy’s (MMA) endeavour to help educate and guide music students continued on Sunday with the second edition of “Le Connect: Inside the mind of an artiste” featuring Dr. Vivee Peseyie, Dean of Margaret Shishak School of Music (MSSM).
Director of the academy, Bethel Tsuzu, introduced the Music Talk Show, held at Furtados, Dimapur, as a space to help musicians connect and communicate and learn from each other.
“Whether you are part of a band or an orchestra, a soloist, a music teacher, a music director, your artistic ability can become stagnant and lack growth if you stop communicating and connecting with fellow artists,” Tsuzu viewed adding that ‘Le Connect’ strives to provide a space for students to be professional musicians “and not just hobbyists”.
Born into a family of musicians, it is no surprise Dr. Peseyie took to music. With a violinist father and a pianist mother, Dr. Peseyie, who grew up in Kohima, also had uncles and aunts who played trumpets, clarinets and even the piccolo way back in the 1950s.
A recipient of numerous citations and awards, Dr. Peseyie comes with vast experience in the field of music pedagogy, piano performance, study of folk music, music composition, chorale teaching and managing church music ministry.
Notwithstanding the many accolades, Dr. Peseyie’s philosophy on music is straightforward: “To glorify God”. “To make music for the Church and for God is one of the most rewarding things,” she stated.
Giving her observations on the music scene in local churches, she revealed that most churches struggle with tempo and rhythm. She further pointed to a decline in the standard of hymn singing among youngsters while observing that “elders sing very well”.
To improve this, Dr. Peseyie maintains that there is a need for dedicated people who are musically equipped and “willing to learn”.
Dr. Peseyie during the Music Talk Show further pointed to two kinds of music makers – those who enjoy and take music as a hobby and those who love music.
“Classical music is no joke,” she viewed, stating that one has to spend a lot of time and effort to be able to get the nuances – like rhythm, notes etc. – right. “You must love it to be able to do it,” she insisted.
On her future plans, the Dean of MSSM says she looks forward to taking a break soon and retiring someday. “I haven’t taken a break for 12 years,” she revealed. She hopes to further research on Naga folk music and hopefully write something.
Hojevi Cappo joined in the programme and displayed some of his self-made bamboo percussions and flutes. A Secretary in the Music Department of Western Sumi Baptist Akukuhou Kuqhkulu (WSBAK), Cappo has a passion for discovering traditional music and using it in local churches.
The programme capped off with a delightful performance of Naga traditional folk music with the adroit Cappo deftly juggling between the bamboo percussions and the flutes, while accompanied by a graceful Dr. Peseyie on the piano.
