A Ballygunge boy whose first tryst with French horns, bassoons and trumpets was at the Calcutta School of Music is back home as conductor of a premier European orchestra that would perform at his alma mater’s centenary celebrations.

Debashish Chaudhuri, 40, will wield the baton for the Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic Orchestra from Zlin in the Czech Republic, which will perform along with members of the Calcutta Chamber Orchestra on Sunday evening. The concert at Kala Mandir will mark the end of the centenary celebrations.

Chaudhuri, an alumnus of St. James’ School who has performed at some of the best-known concert venues in the world, is thrilled at the prospect of entertaining his home audience. “My parents still live in Calcutta. It has always been the home I come back to from Prague. I am thrilled to be performing here at the conclusion of the centenary celebrations of the school where my musical journey started,” he said.

Chaudhuri recalled how, as a student in the music school in the 1990s, he had discovered instruments like trumpets and bassoons in packing boxes in a room near the library and taught himself how to play them.

After completing school, Chaudhuri joined a night college to concentrate on music before moving to the Czech Republic to study a conductor’s course. Chaudhuri’s wife Jana, a pianist, is also part of the orchestra and would perform solo on Sunday.

“I don’t remember the last time such a big orchestra played in Calcutta. Generally chamber orchestras, which comprise mostly string sections, perform here. But Sunday’s performance would have an equal spread of strings, woodwinds, brass and percussion,” said Prodipto Banerjea, secretary of the Calcutta School of Music.

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph,Calcutta,India / Front Page> Calcutta> Story / by Rith Basu / Saturday – February 27th, 2016