The Sunshine Orchestra is the marquee project of the A R Rahman Foundation. Socially and economically underserved children with an aptitude in music are provided free musical training. Once equipped with the requisite skills, endowed with confidence, they are groomed to explore opportunities and build a career in music, as teachers or as performers. The children get a better understanding of their own and other cultural identities through the exploration of Indian & Western musical traditions. They benefit from the exposure to global cultural trends through their interactions with eminent international musicians and learning from them. Most importantly, the Sunshine Orchestra is a stepping stone to building harmony, unifying people, diluting communal and cultural differences.
Since its inception in the year 2008, the foundation has adopted over 100 students, primarily from the MGR Corporation School, Kodambakkam and other institutions, who hail from economically underserved sections of the community. The students are trained by expert faculty in orchestral instruments including strings and brass, in an effort to empower them with life skills and provide them with a viable future career within the creative industries.
The latest expansion has started to involve training in the woodwind instruments - flute and clarinet. We are on the lookout to sponsor a teacher for this division of the orchestra.
The Strings Ensemble was initiated in the year 2008 and from then on classes were offered in Violin, Viola, Cello and Double Bass.
The most advanced batch of students form the nucleus of what we hope will become a full time symphony orchestra. Under the mentoring & training of Mr. Srinivasa Murthy, a renowned conductor and puristic Violinist, these string students further master their trade.
They have already demonstrated a level of measured professionalism undertaking recordings for Film Scores as well as performances across India and abroad including the United Nations Headquarters in New York. They are regularly engaged by the Founder, Dr. A. R. Rahman, for his live concerts, films and other projects.
The Brass Ensemble, was initiated in the year 2016 under the tutelage of Lisa Sarasini, a professionally trained Trombonist. The Brass project has seen a continuous growth and is on the right track to create a top class entertaining brass ensemble who can perform at the highest level.
Brass playing has traditionally been male dominated because the instruments are heavy, loud, and take some degree of physical energy to play. Despite this, in the world of western music, much headway has been made to change this perception, thanks to many extremely talented and successful female brass players. Playing a brass instrument requires special training and practice - improving lung capacity, and building muscles around the mouth - and the women are proving they are just as capable as men.
At The Sunshine Orchestra - brass section, we are extremely happy to have 7 girls studying with us, a number which we plan to increase in the near future. At first, we found that the girls prefered to play strings instrument, especially violin but as soon as they learnt a few notes on the brass instruments they were hooked. We feel that playing a louder instrument has in a way given them more confidence and we are very proud of them for the progress they are making. We soon hope to have an ensemble of girls on brass.
A R Rahman Foundation is collaborating with many noted women brass artists from across the globe to inspire our girls. A recent video message from the highly acclaimed Bones Apart Trombone Quartet from the UK has set the stage for future collaborations. Our girls of brass can benefit from the experiences of these world class artists to learn better and stay motivated in their pursuit.
The Sunshine Orchestra Brass Buddies, is a virtual mentorship program started during the global Covid-19 pandemic to connect musicians & teachers from across the globe with the sunshine orchestra brass students in India. A mentorship oriented initiative for all the teachers looking forward to teaching music utilising their strengths & sharing their musical talents with those in need.
During these uncertain & challenging times, we feel a responsibility to unite our community, and to use this moment to learn from one another, to grow and to become stronger. Check this link out to read more about this initiative.
We are happy to announce the launch of the sunshine orchestra - woodwinds ensemble. Started in Nov 2023 with Edelgive Foundation as the development partner for this project. This project is spearheaded by Lisa Sarasini, the head of department for brass and woodwinds ensemble.
For our pilot woodwinds ensemble program, we welcome these young children into our ever growing family who are all in the tender age group of 10 to 12 years. We are humbled at this opportunity to mentor these young budding musicians. We hope that these students form the nucleus of what will become a full time symphony orchestra.
Since its inception in October 2023, the Percussion Section of the Sunshine Orchestra has doubled in size to twenty students across three different groups, including a new group that recently started educating students as young as eight years of age. Students are being trained in the fundamentals of technique across multiple percussion instruments - none of which they had had any prior experience with - and are currently focusing on snare drum and xylophone, while auxiliary percussion has been introduced to them as well.
They have had the opportunity to take to the stage on several occasions in the form of student concerts, as well as a concert during a cultural event at The Learning Community at Quest. This concert, where they performed with the Junior Sunshine Orchestra, was the first time the percussion students had ever performed publicly. The students will gradually develop technique across every instrument that the role of an orchestral percussionist demands of them, with the advanced percussion group working on ensemble music for marimba, a first for them.
Moving forward, the students will be introduced to an increasing amount of traditional Western classical orchestra repertoire in order to further prepare them for careers in orchestra.
To our sense of achievement, we have started our first outreach program at a government aided school, General Cariappa School, Saligramam, Chennai.
After our selection process, we have selected 38 students from the age group of 10-12 years and involved our senior string students to teach them Violin and Cello to start with.
This is helping the orchestra reach out to many more children who are in need which has induced a sense of responsibility and giving back to our senior students.
On the invitation of Mr. Nephiu Rio, the Chief Minister of Nagaland, and TaFMA (Task Force for Music & Arts is a department of the Government of Nagaland) Dr. A R Rahman visited Nagaland to grace the finale of the Hornbill Festival.
During a visit to an orphanage in Kohima Dr. A R Rahman was impressed by the choir and found a connect with 20 students aged between 8 and 11. These 20 students are now a part of The Sunshine Orchestra family. The children will learn orchestral instruments while attending regular school and can then decide to pursue it full-time after completing studies as career musicians.
