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Mid-Day: Concert pianist Chelsea de Souza's performance in Mumbai will explore cultural identities in Western classical music

Updated on: 16 June,2023 08:45 AM IST | Mumbai
Suprita Mitter |

Concert pianist Chelsea de Souza’s upcoming lecture-recital will explore the intertwining of cultural identities in Western Classical music

In artistic pursuits such as music, how original is original, and where and how do inspirations come along? Exploring this interesting subject, 29-year-old pianist Chelsea de Souza has put together a lecture cum recital called The Silk Road: A Tale of Musical Trade between East and West, which will be performed in Mumbai early next week as part of a multi-city tour of India.

“As part of my doctorate, and also one of the areas I have been researching about and am interested in for the last few years, was how music is influenced by cultures and how people use it to express their identity. Typically, we don’t think of these cultural interactions much when it comes to Western Classical music because it’s an abstract art form. But when you unravel what inspired composers to compose their music, and what music they encountered, you realise that there have been a lot of cultural interactions across the world,” says de Souza.

Chelsea de SouzaJune 21, 2023News, Mid-Day, Mumbai

Sunday Mid Day: The Chopin duet arrives in India with a Western Classical performance on June 19

Updated on: 11 June,2023 08:09 AM IST | Mumbai
Jane Borges | jane.borges@mid-day.com

Bandra’s virtuosos, Chelsea and Chloe de Souza, who have been wowing audiences with their Western Classical performances in America, are on an India tour, where in a first, they will slide four hands across the keys of a piano.

Chelsea de Souza’s earliest memory of Western Classical music was on the breakfast table. Her “musically-inclined” father, Colin, would play records of the collected works of composer-pianist Frederic Chopin as she and her younger sister Chloe polished off their bowls of porridge. “I still have a very strong memory of listening to Chopin before heading to school,” says the Houston-based pianist, whom we meet at her family home in Bandra West. “That’s how it all began.”

The 29-year-old, who is a Steinway Young Artist—a title conferred upon only the best pianists of their time by a programme handled by Steinway’s Concert and Artist Department—has spent the last 12 years at music schools across the US pursuing an undergrad at Oberlin College and Conservatory, before a Master’s at Peabody. She is currently in the midst of completing a doctorate at Rice University.

Chelsea de SouzaJune 12, 2023News, Mid-Day, Duo, Chloe de Souza, Mumbai

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