'It's amazing how people here fuse western and classical music'

From conducting thousands of concerts around the world to preparing for the United Nations and America's got Talent, GRAMMY-winning choral director Kevin Fox has collaborated with numerous choirs and artists. And now, he is in Delhi to teach choral music to people here.

"I am enjoying myself. I have never been here before so I am getting used to everything from the food to the music and the traffic. It's all very different," he says,"I have been to many places so, I try to learn as much as I can from the people around me and I am getting to know what the musicians are doing here."

Fox, who is the founding Artistic Director of Pacific Boychoir Academy of California, is here in India under a unique initiative called Indian Choral Fellowship (ICF) by Classical Movements says that he is amazed by the fact that India has a strong musical tradition. He adds, "I have been trying to learn different genres and I am enjoying all the music that I hear. It's amazing how the people here fuse western and classical music. I am finding a lot of similarities between Indian classical music and western classical music."

So far, Kevin has conducted ICF workshops at Madras Musical Association, Madras Youth Choir and KM Conservatory in Chennai this January where he discovered something very interesting – people who are doing Indian music with western-style choir. "I think I was the first because Neeta, the President of Classical Movements wanted somebody who could work with kids and adults and someone who could work with people irrespective of their skills in music. All musicians can learn from each other; so the more I learn, the more I can help."

"I think people here are very willing to learn and try different things. I have noticed people here have adroit ears; they quickly catch different musical components. You can always be better and there is always something to learn. And it's definitely possible for kids to sing after maybe 2 years and as for the adults; they might not become professionals but they can be really good after even just a year of singing."

Fox, who started singing at the age of eight says his mother thought of putting his habit of "making annoying noises around the house to better use" by channeling that energy to singing.

During his stay in Delhi, Kevin will be working with Neemrana Foundation's youth educational programs – training choral teachers and teaching with the Foundation's Opera Chorus for their upcoming production and also, will be seen as a guest conductor and leading ICF workshops in Capital City Minstrels and Delhi School of Music.

"Choral music is not much different from the music you hear every day. There are musical components that are common to all the genres of music – melody and rhythm. The singing and harmony are the only thing that makes the most difference. It just takes training for ears to listen to different things."

Kevin is keen on imparting choral music as he believes people are interested in learning singing in choirs but not everyone have the right knowledge and teacher to begin with choral music. He says, "I think, here in India, it is difficult to find opportunities to learn or run a choir and that's one of the things that I am trying to provide through Neeta Helms' Classical movements. People in India need to be exposed to choral music to understand it and this can either happen with recordings or we have a choir group from Yale and an orchestra from Julliard, who will be coming here, so, people can go and listen to it in the concerts to get a better understand about what choral music is all about."

With more than 40 choir tours to almost 50 states and six continents, Kevin is trying to bridge the cultural gap with choral music. He says, "Choral music is important because it's one thing where people have their own responsibility, they do their part but they also have to listen to others and work with others, so, it's a good lesson for life about having a common goal and working together. You can do choir with someone else even if you don't know their language. It's a way to bring people together and I don't think there is anything else that can

do the same thing."