One of a kind cultural experience

Manasi Prasad, Project Director of the upcoming Centre for Indian Music Experience, Bangalore, envisioned to integrate technology with tradition and provide a ‘state of art’ experience to the common man

Manasi Prasad spearheads the ‘Centre for Indian Music Experience’ project, which would be the first of its kind interactive museum to be spread across 50,000 sq ft, comprising eight multimedia galleries. The museum will host about 250 musical instruments, audio-visual guides and recordings.

There are proposed thematic galleries having diverse expressions, musical conversations, international influences, nationalism, patronage, recording history, films, theatre, dance and gallery of stars to cater to a wide range of information and knowledge. According to Manasi, the museum design is a result of national and international inputs. A competition was conducted and the best design was selected.

Gallagher & Associates, who have designed the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles, dedicated to the history, art and technology of recorded music would be working on the internal galleries. There is a plan to set up a ‘Sound Garden’, which will have six sound installations including reeds, chimes, tubular bells, plate gongs, musical stones and chimes.

These installations would provide the guests an opportunity to feel the experience of placing themselves on a singing stone, sit on a bench, which becomes musical or even create music via a gong through their interaction.

This museum is planned in such a way that even a layman, who has very little or zero knowledge about music, would have a great experience and would enjoy being a part of the classical world after his virtual tour. One can know about the old traditional Gharanas, the lineage of musicians, the usage of ragas in cinema, the modern integration of classical melodies and western beats and so on.

“It’s a huge project, which needs about 50 crores and nearly 50 per cent of the amount has been brought in through likeminded people. At the moment, a teaching centre and a space for practice sessions have been opened at the centre in collaboration with Rhapsody Music education, the ‘RIME’ project is being run to sensitise children about the Indian musical values,” Manasi shares.

However, not much has been planned on the aspect of music therapy. “As far as ‘music therapy’ is concerned, I still have not come across enough scientific evidence which can really prove it all. This aspect is still in a research stage all over the world , especially so as very little detailed results are available about the role of ‘Indian Ragas’,” Manasi informs.