Experience a cinema in concert performance

Stills from Magic Piano & The Chopin Shorts

In October last year, sitarist Anoushka Shankar breathed life into a restored silent film, Shiraz, with a live performance that served as its background score.

For those who missed that spectacle, and are intrigued by the idea of watching cinema in a concert, here's an adventure you can be part of, and you can bring your kids along as well. Magic Piano & The Chopin Shorts, made by Oscar-winning creators BreakThru Films, is an animated film that narrates the story of Anna and Chip-Chip's escapades with a flying magic piano. This film has been designed to be accompanied by the music of Frédéric Chopin.

Stills from Magic Piano & The Chopin Shorts

The main silent feature (28 minutes) is accompanied by The Chopin Shorts, which is a collection of films set to Chopin's études (a short piece designed for practice). Pianist Dinara Klinton will perform the live screen score.

On a four-city tour, the Ukranian pianist will also be conducting workshops for children in the host cities. "For the workshops, I am covering different Western composers from different eras. It's music that the kids have not come across on TV or in their everyday lives. I discuss the piece with the kids and also talk about the composers. I am also covering the Chopin études at these workshops," she tells us.

Klinton has performed this piece in the UK and Germany before. "Chopin études have been a part of my repertoire. So when I got to know that the producers have created a movie around the piece, I was happy to do it as I was already playing the music," Klinton tells us. The fact that the performance blurs the boundaries between art meant for adults and children, and provides a chance for different age groups to experience it together, also encouraged the pianist.

Dinara Klinton

"For a regular performance, the pianist decides how to play the keys, the timing, the expressions. But for a screen performance, you have to only go by what's playing on the screen. So in a way, it's tricky," she explains. What excites Klinton the most is that those who aren't acquainted with classical music can also enjoy this performance. "I watched the movie a lot of times and drafted a list of the crucial points where it is extremely important to be together with the screen - certain pauses, the expressions and movements of the characters, etc." Klinton summarises.

ON: June 16 and 17, 7.30 pm
AT: St Andrew's auditorium, Bandra West.
LOG ON TO: bookmyshow.com
COST: Rs 640 onwards

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