When it comes to French culture & classical music, brass band Orfeo is at the forefront of keeping it alive

Twenty five years! But that can’t be, you all look so young,” at first, it sounded a little confusing to find such a young repertoire of musicians dating their brass band Orfeo to be as old as quarter of a century. “It’s true, Orfeo is 25 years old. It was started by a teacher at the music conservatory in France and since then, the music tradition is being passed on,” Frenchman Nicolas Casanova gives us the classic brass band, one which indulges in music ranging from classical, middle ages to jazz, romantic, modern and motion picture soundtrack. “Of Federico Fellini,” say the other members - Eric Varion on the Tuba, Hamid Medjebeur on the Trombone, Adrien Ration and Nicolas Boronmer on the trompettes. In town to for a performance courtesy the Alliance Francaise in collaboration with The Indian Express, Vodafone, UT Administration and Steps, the name Orfeo, they tell us, comes from a mythical Greek legend, Orpheus who was called the father of music. “He is the one who infuenced and inspired musicians, and we’ve been carrying on the tradition of classical French music alive,” say these French music teachers from Lyon, improvising and re-creating sound to keep the children’s interest intact. “With so much of pop and rock, it’s difficult to engage them with classical music, so we first introduce them to the classical sound. Once they get used to it, we improvise and let them discover different kinds of music they can play with a solid base like this,” the fact that traditional music is tough to learn and understand has few takers, a problem which the French are facing, just like us. “One cannot be a star by simply winning a musical reality shows. You cannot learn music in two months, it’s an education for a lifetime!”

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