A self-taught 25-year-old musician from Darjeeling, Ankita Chettri, was given a unique opportunity to teach 30-odd musicians from across the world a Nepali song in Germany.
Ankita was selected for Ethno Germany, a traditional music programme under the world’s largest youth-music non-profit organisation called Jeunesses Musicales International (JMI), which was held in Lichtenberg Castle in Rhineland-Palatinate state in Germany.
In addition to Ankita, two other Indian representatives, Himansh Pandey and Devrishi Shah, were selected for the programme.
“As part of the programme, representatives of a culture would teach a song to the whole group. I did the same by teaching Resham Firiri to my peer group,” said Ankita.
Resham Firiri is a popular Nepali folk song from 1970.
“I chose this song because the ubiquity of this uplifting tune has been a constant accompaniment since childhood. Perhaps it fittingly represents the carefree yet caring spirit of our cultural ethos and also for its catchy melody,” said Ankita.
The program had representatives from France, Spain, Belgium, Argentina, Chile, Congo, Algeria, Latvia, Estonia, India and Germany among others.
Each team was allocated 45 minutes to explain the structure of the composition, lyrics and translation. There were also arrangement sessions including orchestra practice.
“We performed songs from around 13 different cultures including French, Belgian, Congolese, Latvian, Estonian, German and Spanish among others,”
said Ankita who also performed in Spanish, African and Belgian songs and tunes.
Ankita plays various instruments from guitar to Spanish bongo, claves to cajon and other percussion instruments.
The team then performed in three concerts at Urweltmuseum in Geoskop, the Cultural Centre in DasHaus and at the City of Ludwigshafen from August 15 to 25.
Ankita, who studied in Gyanoday Niketan and Loreto Convent in Darjeeling, did her bachelor’s from St. Stephen’s College in Delhi and post-graduation from Ashoka University.
At St. Stephen’s she was the president of the western acapella team called Sound Machine. Acapella is a form of singing where the human voice mimics the sound of several instruments like the guitar and drums along with singing. There is no instrumental accompaniment in this performance.
