"Farah Ghadiali is very committed to her singing and has a beautiful voice with an extensive range. We have recently discovered that she would make a very good coloratura soprano (‘Queen of the Night’ material)," recommends Patricia Rozario, recipient of the Order of the British Empire. The aria "Queen of the Night" is known for its vocal leaps and agile runs for soprano voice in the opera The Magic Flute by Wolfgang Mozart. Rozario, who is professor of singing at the Royal College of Music, London has been teaching Ghadiali since 2009 when she started the Giving Voice to India (GVI) course in Bombay and tapped Ghadiali’s upper register and coloratura abilities. The GVI, brainchild of Rozario and her husband the renowned pianist Mark Troop, promotes western music talent in India. It covers vocal technique, musical style and interpretation, and gives an introduction to the basic European languages for singing. Rozario comes to Bombay three times a year and has now also included Goa, Poona, Delhi and Ahmedabad where she trains talented singers. Between her visits she entrusts Minaish Doctor and Edward Menezes in Bombay with the responsibility of continuing the efforts she has put in.
The GVI, under the aegis of Giving Voice Society (GVS) "promotes concert performance and opera in India so that Indian singers may get both experience and joy from singing live," states Rozario in her write-up on the GVS. Since inception, their singers have sung at festivals in Bombay, at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) operas, at the Monte Festival Goa, and... in 2013 "staged our own all-Indian cast opera." A number of community members are associated with GVS whose president is industrialist Navroze Godrej with production director Rehaan Engineer, conductor Parvesh Java and singers Doctor and Kersi Gazdar.
Farah Ghadiali: gaining experience in Europe
Ghadiali has participated in all the GVI performances, whether light opera or Henry Purcell’s first opera composed 350 years ago, Dido and Aeneas, to be performed in July-August 2014 in Bombay, Delhi, Goa and Poona. The to-be-professional soprano Ghadiali will then fly to Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London which is one of the top 10 music schools, for a year’s course in music at the postgraduate level in the United Kingdom. Currently a lot of her energies are spent on garnering funds — a daunting task for any artiste, especially if she is holding a job. In her own words, "The circumstances are such that any course abroad is almost totally out of reach of an Indian student of limited means. Raising funds for music studies is next to impossible since most educational trusts do not encourage this subject."
Ghadiali is at present senior manager - events marketing at the NCPA. She takes time off to travel with the Stop-Gaps Choral Ensemble that she has been with since 2005, sings at theater performances and in interludes when a classical trained voice is demanded. She even performs in Gujarati theater and on television shows. "My formal musical training began comparatively late at 23… (but) this has made me resolute and pushed me to work harder… Working on an intensive daily basis in a conservatoire will be a significant stepping stone towards attaining my goal of being a world class singer and music educator," writes Ghadiali in her statement of purpose. She plans to return to India after gaining experience in Europe for a few years.
Ghadiali may be contacted at the NCPA on (022) 66223731 or by email at farahghadiali@gmail.com