Swedish mezzo-soprano and vocal coach Maria Forsstrom comes to the city as part of February Fiesta — a series of concerts, workshops, and masterclasses based on chamber music. She is joined by Swedish Grammy-winning pianist Bengt Forsberg, who is also a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. Maria kicks off her tour in Bengaluru with a recital this weekend while she takes the stage with Bengt in March.
Apart from Bengt, Maria has a series of concerts lined up. She will perform with local groups Capella Bangalore and The Bangalore Men, in addition to Rebecca Thomas Colaco, a pianist at the Bangalore School of Music. “My performance starts with From Carmen to Duke Ellington — a musical journey that will include old Italian arias, German art songs, and jazzy tunes by Duke Ellington,” she says.
The singer will also perform Franz Schubert ’s song cycle Winterreise, which is considered one of the best pieces composed for vocals and piano. This will be the first time that the song cycle will be performed by a female vocalist in India. Her performance comes to an end with Musique Pour L’heure Bleue — a set of compositions based on themes like love and longing. The composition will include Quatre Poemes Hindous (four Hindu poems) by Maurice Delage, a French composer and pianist. The four poems are based on the cities he visited — Madras, Lahore, Jaipur and Varanasi.
The singer has performed in multiple cities within the country like Bengaluru and Delhi. She believes that India has many talented musicians when it comes to Western classical music. “The country needs more teachers who specialise in Western classical music as there has been an increase in students who want to pursue the genre,” she adds.
Maria also reveals that her most memorable performance till date has been in India. “I was in Hyderabad performing in a hall. It was summer time, so we had 10 to 15 huge air cooling fans in the auditorium. We had a lot of noise from outside coming in, like babies crying and vehicles honking. Yet, everyone was focused on the performance which gave me confidence,” she says.
February 18 to March 4. Across multiple venues
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