Classical Western Music 2020: Anuvrat Choudhary
Anuvrat Choudhary is a 2020 recipient of a bursary in the field of Western Classical Music. He is currently in his second year at Trinity Laban, London.
This week he shares his learnings from his first year at the conservatory and all the firsts he had the opportunity to experience.
Be sure scroll down and listen to his sublime playing.
Studying music full time had been a dream of mine since I first fell in love with playing the piano. I was overjoyed to receive my acceptance letter from Trinity Laban and even more excited when the Inlaks Shivdasani Foundation placed their trust in me and decided to grant me a bursary to help with my education. As exciting as studying at Trinity has been, my first year was in equal measure overwhelming. It has been a year of many firsts for me.
The standard of playing was much higher than those I was accustomed to in India, and so were the expectations from the teachers and other students with whom I was performing. It has been a humbling experience and made me realise the exciting challenges that lay ahead of me.
Due to the pandemic, Trinity was running on a blended teaching schedule where our classes were divided up between in-person and online lessons. According to me, the few online worked better than if they had been in person. It was a great opportunity to meet musicians from college, because of the restrictions on meeting in-person, and learn some of these skills that are used by digital musicians. It was also great fun to collaborate with my classmates right from the beginning of the year. Doing improvisation activities, recording ourselves individually and putting it together on a music software. Many of these experiences were new to me.
I also had the chance to participate in several internal competitions. The concerto competition was my favourite. It finally gave me the opportunity to play a piano concerto for an audience, something I had been practicing for three years and hadn’t had the opportunity to do till then. I pushed myself to learn Schubert’s fantasy in C major “Wanderer”. To my fortune, I was able to acquire a lot of feedback and lessons on it from the many guest pianists also who visited Trinity.
Two of the highlights for me were my masterclasses with Pascal Roge, a pianist who I have admired for years, and a masterclass with Emma Denton, the cellist in the Carducci quartet. The lesson with Pascal Roge took place online, although it was an extremely nerve-racking class, it was inspiring and a huge morale booster for me. Emma Denton’s lesson was with a piano trio I was a part of. Being a part of a piano trio was also a first for me, making the learning experience even more enriching.
Towards the end of the academic year, I played a few performances. Until I was in front of the audience, I hadn’t realised that it had been over a year and a half since I had performed in public. It was truly wonderful to be back on stage.
Apart from being surrounded by all this music, I have also had the chance to explore the London with my friends, experience different weather, such as a snowy winter, which I hope returns next year. It has been a great year where I have learnt a lot and hope that I can push myself further next year to make the most out of this opportunity.
Cover Image: Anuvrat with Soprano Emily Harwood.
