Listen to 11-year-old prodigy perform blindfolded on Mumbai Piano Day

While the World Piano Day is celebrated in March on the 88th day of the year denoting the number of keys in a piano Mumbai witnesses its own piano day in September A concept initiated by Indias leading jazz pianist Louiz Banks last year the second edition of Mumbai Piano Day will be held tonight at the NCPA March isnt a good month to hold concerts being the financial yearender Also the concert season in India begins from September The idea behind the celebration is to offer a viable platform to talented pianists from across the country be it aspiring or established artistes he reasonsLydian Nadhaswaram plays Flight of the Bumblebee blindfoldedBanks has roped in 10 piano and keyboard players including composer Zubin Balaporia and keyboardists Stephen Devassy and Harmeet Manseta who will regale the audience with Western classical jazz rock Latin R n B soul funk and fusion sounds The lineup also includes teenagers Aalia Maskati Rehan Bhat Urvi Binjrajka and Rohini Sharma along with 12yearold Lydian NadhaswaramHe tells us that fortunately the piano still holds a strong appeal among the younger generation For practical purposes it is being represented in different avatars For instance these days you hear less of acoustic piano and more of keyboards mainly because the acoustic piano is not available at clubs recording studios or at concert halls Nevertheless the piano legacy continues to grow in Bollywood and the indie music scene Acoustic piano sounds are being incorporated in digital piano and synthesisers and they are being used extensively across music spheresWith AR RahmanIn a YouTube video then nineyearold Lydian Nadhaswaram seems dwarfed by a giant 88key piano But the keys meekly obey his little fingers as he begins to play Flight of The Bumblebee Composed by Russian maestro Nikolai RimskyKorsakov the complex score is notable for its frenetic tempo but the little musician plays it perfectly not a key out of tuneLouiz BanksI practised for three days looking up online videos to perfect the notes says the Chennaibased child prodigy who turned 12 this month and can now play this composition blindfolded And thats exactly what he will do at the Mumbai Piano Day showcase He will also perform a Hungarian Rhapsody by Franz Liszt and a jazz piece While I enjoy Western classical music jazz is freestyle so it gives me scope to improvise shares Lydian who began playing drums when he was all of two By eight he had also mastered the mridangam and tabla thanks to his music composerfather Varshan He would also play at his ad film music recordings Then he came across a video of Chinese pianist Tsung Tsung and got curious about the piano So we brought home a secondhand piano and began his training recollects Varshan who has chosen to homeschool his sonHaving grasped over 30 Western classical compositions Lydian also pens original scores While he learnt to read notation sheets from his father he is undergoing formal musical training with various teachers These include senior music director Augustine Paul who helped him complete the Grade 8 exam of Trinity College London last year and virtuosic pianist Surojeet Chatterji who heads the Russian Piano Studio at AR Rahmans KM Conservatory Rahman sir has offered Lydian a scholarship to train at the institute They first met four years ago at an event where Lydian was invited to play a drum solo says Varshan over a call as Lydian interjects We also met recently Thanks to him I tried filter coffee for the first timeFrom Melbourne to Miami and New York the preteen has travelled to various cities to perform One such trip was to a music salon where he met a New York businessman who gifted him a Steinway piano made by the legendary AmericanGerman company which costs roughly 85 lakhAnd what keeps Lydian going besides music Reading books on dinosaurs and playing with toy carsAn early starterAnurag Naidus journey as pianist started when he was six Hes from Jamshedpur and had come to Mumbai when Hariharan heard him play the keyboard He told me that I had a strong left hand and should play the piano Soon after I met Kalyanji of KalyanjiAnandji fame and his granddaughter who used to play the pianoThats the first time I saw the instrument He continues Next I moved to Mumbai when I was 18 and learnt the instrument for another six years later going to Paris to study at the Bill Evans Piano Academy Now the 28yearold plies his craft with names as big as AR Rahman and Zakir Hussain apart from Hariharan the man who helped him start his journeyA late bloomerJayakrishnan Unnithan 29 started playing the piano relatively late at the age of 15 Education and work brought the Keralite to Mumbai and away from music for a whileBut I quit my job when I was 25 to start teaching music he says In the process his own proficiency increased to the extent that it got him Bollywood gigs apart from offers to collaborate with indie legends like Ranjit Barot Baiju Dharmarajan and Gino BanksHis musical route might have taken a different course had he not accidentally hurt his little finger as a child Unnithan had initially picked up the violin But the injury led him to switch to the piano in his teensA constant studentRahul Wadhwani grew up in Yavatmal near Nagpur where in his own words there was no music So I picked up a toy keyboard and started playing for myself eventually moving to Mumbai to learn from Sanjay Divecha Later I got a scholarship to study music at the University of Vienna and I returned to the city once Id finished my course he saysThis was about a year ago and Mumbai says the 26yearold has treated him well If you know what you do there are lots of opportunities here he feels But he adds the process of learning the piano never ends When I play with Sanjay Divecha now I dont look at myself as a collaborator because he is still my teacherOn Tonight 7 pmAt Tata Theatre NCPA Nariman Point Call 66223737 Cost 300 onwards