The Score Magazine December 2018 issue! | Page 33

How is the 'experience' India different from that of the Experience Music Project in Seattle, US, which is usually considered the best-in-class interactive museum? In my opinion, our content is a lot more expansive in nature. We have two very unique theatrical experiences – the introductory film which is an immersive 180 degree wraparound screen. We also have a Samay Chakra theatre, which is designed like a mini planetarium, showing the relation between music and time. What all does a visitor get access to at IME Bengaluru? There are three parts to the museum – the Sound Garden, the Learning Centre and the Exhibit Galleries. Sound Garden and Exhibits are always open to visitors. Learning Centre conducts regular music classes and also seminars and workshops. In addition we have a gift store and a café. What was the striving force behind the extraordinary sound garden at the IME? The sound garden was co-created by SVARAM of Pondicherry and Foley Designs in Bangalore. The idea of the sound garden is to introduce the principles of sound such as frequency, resonance, vibration, timbre etc through interactive musical sculptures. It is an unique experience because over here we say ‘please touch the instruments’ as opposed to most museums saying ‘don’t touch’. A learning centre is pretty amazing a concept that was woven into the entire immersive experience of music. What all does the centre involve, is there a higher thought behind this initiative. Can we expect a choir group or a band group from the trained musicians at IME, in the near future? The idea behind the learning centre is to produce versatile musicians – who can not only perform, but can also speak, write and compose in Hindustani and Carnatic music in keyboard, guitar, veena, mridangam etc. Hindreds of students are imbibing the nuances of music from music experts. The feat achieved by IME is pretty monumental what were the stumbling blocks for the founders. How difficult had it been to set the setting stone up. What were the challenges and risks involved in the entire process of finding IME? The biggest challenge was getting an experienced crew for setting up an experiential museum in the country. Next was a dilemma, what to option and what not to, since the Indian music is criss- crossed with possibilities. We are grateful to Brigade Group, Prestige, SBI as well as the state and central governments for helping us face the challenges with their support. How did you approach the world renowned designers Gallagher and Associates for this project. What was the idea behind IME's look and experience, how was it to work with a stellar group of engineers who also worked on the Grammy Museum? We travelled to the US to study museum designs, and realized the need for an international exhibit designer to achieve what we desired. We were very impressed by how several genres of American music had seamlessly been blended together at the GRAMMY Museum in LA by the Gallagher and Associates. We received several proposals for exhibit designs too, but theirs was the most complete and exciting. The designers sat on several content meetings with us to get an idea of our vision. They then converted these content ideas to exciting exhibits. Tell us a bit about your journey so far, how is the response so far from the visitors, music enthusiasts, media and foreign tourists et al? Can we soon expect to see IME branching out to different cities? We had a thrilling soft launch in May when we opened for only two and a half days and about 2000 people turned up. We had a heartening response once we re- launched from November 1st. We have lots of school groups coming too and they are really amazed by the experience. We even have enthusiastic international tourist groups. One tourist said, ‘finally there is one place where we can make sense of all that India has to offer, and it is a springboard for my journey into India’. Like the shehnai of Ustad Bismillah Khan and the silver paan box of Bhimsen Joshi what all are the selling points of IME Bengaluru that really has attracted the visitors since your inception? In terms of artefacts, we have recently got the Tambura and Sari belonging to Bharat Ratna MS Subbulakshmi. Most of the musical instruments we have, are donated by famous musicians such as Sudha Ragunathan, Bickram Ghosh, Anoor Ananthakrishna Sharma and others. We recently acquired an antique Erard Grand Piano and Daler Mehndi’s grand concert attire! Apart from this, our photo opportunity with a Bollywood poster, a rare gramophone and phonograph….the list is endless! What next, what is your roadmap with IME and beyond that? We are in the process of developing a mobile museum exhibit to travel to different schools and cities. We are expanding the activities of the Learning Centre to launch a Diploma program. We will be hosting a grand music festival, an annual music conference soon besides venturing out to music healing. The Score Magazine highonscore.com 31