In the month of March, Advisor TaFMA visited and interacted with the children of the Sunshine Orchestra, Nagaland Chapter. He spoke to them at length and heard about their ongoing music classes. One may recall that on December 10th, 2020, A R Rahman had signed an MoU with TaFMA to and also announced the launch of the Nagaland chapter of the Sunshine Orchestra. Launched in Chennai in 2009, the Orchestra is one of the flagship projects of the A R Rahman Foundation. Members of the Orchestra in Chennai have accompanied Rahman for concerts in India and abroad

“We visited an orphanage in Kohima, home to 90 children. All of them got on stage and         sang Christmas songs and they were so melodious they sounded like a proper choir,” said    Adam Greig, academic coordinator, KMMC.

About 20 children from the orphanage, aged between eight and eleven, have been selected to be part of the Sunshine orchestra. “We are now identifying potential teachers who will be trained at KMMC. We will then go with them to Nagaland to start the project. In future, we aim to put in place where they will keep coming down to KMMC and the staff here will also go to Nagaland to teach,” said Greig.

According to Rahman, the children will learn orchestral instruments while schooling and can then decide to pursue it full-time after completing studies. “It is our intention that they become career musicians, there is a great need for orchestral musicians in India.”

Task Force for Music and Arts Nagaland is organising an Art exhibition at India Habitat Centre form 24-26 April, 2020. The mentioned event will feature some of the best works of Nagaland artist and is titled “Nagaland on Canvas”.