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| Sunday, 8 February 2004 |
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Is there a link between medicine and music? - A chat with Malinee Peris by V. Basnayake
Malinee Peris was on a short private visit to Sri Lanka and she left on January 9 on her return journey to USA. She would, however, have been ready and glad to give a public recital if arrangements could have been made for it. On previous visits she has played piano concertos with Symphony Orchestras in Colombo under the baton of Earle de Fonseka and of Rohan Joseph-de Saram both of whom are dead now. She could easily have found a sponsor for a recital last December (2003) but she was not in a position to look after practical arrangements such as booking a hall, advertising the event, selling tickets and so on. She is sure to find an organiser the next time she comes. Moving performances An artistic performance must move the audience. In folk performances like the Kohomaba Kankariya in Sri Lanka the audience is under a spell. Ms. Peris had seen such a performance years ago and she felt it was 'magical'. Performances of traditional music with drums in Sri Lanka are entrancing. Those of highly polished Far Eastern drum orchestras never fail to amaze the audience by their polish and refinement but they may not make the audience run wild. Amateur performers Most of Professor Peris' work at the George Washington University in Washington DC consists of training amateur performers on piano and stringed instruments to improve their achievement levels. These amateurs are mostly students doing subjects in the arts, sciences, medicine, etc., rather than in music itself. They love to do music on the side and wish to enhance their experience of it. They play solo works, or in small chamber groups such as trios, quartets or ensembles. These students have come to the University from all over the world. Some of Ms. Peris' best performers have come from the East including India (Kerala), Thailand, China, South Korea, and Japan. Medicine and music Is there a link between medicine and music? Malnee Peris said there is. Many of her performers have been medical students and doctors. She thought that it was not due to an inherent, inborn link between music and medicine. Rather, it was due to the nature of medical studies. The medical student is forced to focus heavily upon learning his texts. He is used to putting in great effort to learn medicine. This training carries over into other things which the medical student does, including music. To be at the cutting edge as a top-class performer he/she has to appear regularly on the public concert stage. There is a great overproduction of marvellous performers by the conservatories and music schools of the world. There aren't enough openings for them as concert performers per se. Many of them take teaching positions in Music Departments in the Universities partly because they are thereby assured of a regular income as well as free time to concertise. Many other top-class performers lose out in the race to get high-level musical appointments in orchestras, music schools and universities. They are forced to play at lower levels or to move out into other professions. Concert agents sometimes have their own agenda - such as a wish to favour performers coming from particular ethnic groups. One of Ms. Peris' concert reviews for a leading US paper did not appear because of lack of space, but the concert agent had managed to get a copy of it and published it in all the blurbs for that particular artiste, saying it was a review in that leading paper which could not be published for lack of space. Western music and Oriental music Indian classical music is a firmly established species of music. Its adherents remain faithful to its system of ragas and melody, and its instrumental backing with rhythm but without 'harmony' (in the Western music sense). At Chennai there is an annual month-long music festival in December-January at which there are daily lectures, workshops and performances of Indian classical music. Ms. Peris plans to attend the next such Festival there. But she also feels that the distinction between 'Western Music' and 'Oriental music' is breaking down, and that a new kind of pan-music is emerging by the 'fusion' of these separate cultures. She was aware that the same process was taking place in Sri Lanka, led by composers from the 'Oriental' side as well as some from the 'Western' side. Malinee Peris is now Associate Professor of Music (Piano Performance and Chamber Ensemble), George Washington University, Washington DC. She has been commissioned by Brioso Recordings to give a series of select piano recitals. The first of these, on Ravel and Debussy, was released in 2001. The second, "From Portugal to Brazil", has recently appeared as one of Brioso's Tenth Anniversary releases. It was reviewed in this column on 11 January. |
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