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In Nepal, traditional folk music still sells the best. Post-modern genres like pop, rock and hip-hop are fast catching up. In this climate, Western classical music seems to have limited scope. There are enough students learning to play violins, violas and pianos yet the opportunities for them to showcase their skills are few and far between. They are limited to performing on small stages and quiet venues in duos, trios, quartets or even quintets but a concert for a full-fledged chamber orchestra is a rare occasion.

The Annapurna Chamber Orchestra is an ensemble of talented and experienced musicians playing different instruments that is trying to change the orchestra scene of Nepal by organizing shows and giving platforms to young musicians. Led by Rajkumar Shrestha, a veteran musician and music instructor who is also the director and conductor of the orchestra, the orchestra has around 40 members in its senior team and 30 in its junior ensemble.

Internationally, a chamber orchestra is considered a small orchestra with from 30-40 instrumentalists playing together, but in Nepal, seeing so many musicians perform on stage at the same time is a unique sight. Founded in 2014, the orchestra has been performing at different venues in the country and is in the final phase of its registration as a non-profit.

“Our goal is to give our students a platform to perform on stage and at the same time create a written archive of Nepali music”

Rajkumar Shrestha, Director and conductor, The Annapurna Chamber Orchestra

“Our goal is to give our students a platform to perform on stage and at the same time create a written archive of Nepali music,” informs Shrestha, 59, who has been a musician and music instructor for over three decades now. Shrestha adds that the orchestration of old Nepali music will create a timeless history and the scores produced in the process can in the future be performed by all musicians who can sight-read and play music.

Shrestha’s students and also the founding members of the orchestra—Yogesh Dagoriya, 33, and Sudhakar Wosti, 37—agree. “Our students are thrilled when we give them the opportunity to perform for an audience as it helps them enhance their skills,” says Dagoriya. Adds Wosti: “We can also create more interest in the audience by orchestrating Nepali music and showing them that Nepali music can also be performed on classical Western instruments.”

The orchestra, its members inform, is an ensemble of three divisions of violin, as well as cello, double bass, woodwind section, brass section, along with the traditional sitar and madal. More than limiting itself to paying classical canons as orchestras abroad do, the Annapurna Chamber Orchestra looks to blend a bit of Eastern music to create interesting music for Nepali audiences and foreigners alike.

The senior orchestra consists of prolific musicians aged 10-50 (skill has got nothing to do with age here) while the junior orchestra has students aged 7-15 years perform together. All the orchestra performers learn and practice their parts on their own and meet occasionally to rehearse the whole set.

“Lack of proper space is our biggest problem,” Shrestha says. “We sometimes have to practice in a group of 40 and finding a hall big enough to accommodate us is difficult.” The orchestra, being a non-profit, also suffers from lack of funds. “But we have been able to get along with the help of our friends and well-wishers,” he adds. “My friend Jayadev Krishna Shrestha has been our biggest patron yet and with his support, we have been able to organize rehearsal sessions and concerts.”

The orchestra is all set to perform at the Rastriya Nacchghar, Jamal on April 14 which is the Nepali New Year’s day. The free concert will have both the junior and senior ensembles performing orchestrated arrangements of classic Nepali patriotic songs. (We have a short video with the article to give our audience a feel of what to expect.)

Nepali animation industry is getting better—and busier—as it gets commissions for more and more national and international projects. Not many are aware that Nepali firms are creating animated sequences and doing creatve stuff for popular international movies, animation works and television dramas. As it involves a lot of experimentation and innovation, the attraction of the Nepali youth towards animation is growing. “With the participation of more and more youths, animation in Nepal has taken off,” says veteran animator Suyogya Man Tuladhar.

He left his lucrative job in Silicon Valley to groom up-and-coming animators in Nepal in early 2000s and currently divides his time between Nepal and the US. Most notably, Suyogya co-founded Incessant Rain Animation Studio in 2008 and Black Box Animation Academy in 2010. Nepali animation is getting global recognition for its quality that is now on par with international standards. Our animators have come a long way from merely copying and modifying the works of foreign animators to creating their original masterpieces. Besides their work with entertainment outlets, they also produce works on social themes like health, environment, politics, election, pre-natal and post-natal care, trauma, education, and child psychology.

The birth of animation in Nepal can be traced back to late 1980s and early 1990s. In 1987, UNICEF had organized an animation workshop in Nepal, in collaboration with World View International. In the workshop, some Nepali animators were trained on creating simple animation with a Nepali character named ‘Shyam’. The animation feature was about dealing with common diseases and keeping the environment free of disease-carrying virus. In 2016, a studio named Yantrakala made a huge leap when it produced Nepal’s first stand-alone animated feature film ‘The Legend of Shankhadhar’ (Shankhadharko Katha). Later in the same year, the same firm began working on animating historian Satya Mohan Joshi’s work into an animation film titled as Majipa Lakhay.

Booming business

 Animation industry has seen a boom in Nepal with growing number of advertising agencies, film development firms, broadcasting channels, and VFX outlets. Nepali animators these days not only produce animation sequences for Hollywood blockbusters (‘Kung Fu Panda’, ‘The Lego Batman’, ‘The Lego Ninjago Movie’), they also cater to the needs of their domestic clients like banks, apps developers, Youtube channel owners, social media pages and reputed broadcasters.

“There has been good return on investment for producers of quality content. Another expansion of Nepali animation industry can be seen in collaborative creation of sequences in projects for global entities such as Disney, Amazon, Fox, Netflix, and NBC,” says Kiran Bhakta Joshi, another veteran animator who had worked for Disney for 17 years.

According to Tuladhar, on an average, an animator earns around US $1,000 to $5,000 for a minute-long animation video. Depending on client requirements and production aspects, the price can vary. For instance, around $8 million per minute was invested in animating sequence for the movie ‘Life of Pi’. “The price varies based on the expectations of clients and can go far up to $80 million to $100 million for a movie,” says Tuladhar.

Nepal is also getting good exposure in animation thanks to the start of animation courses in institutions such as Maya Animation Academy, iDream Animation, Incessant Rain, and Blackbox Animation Academy. Incessant Rain is considered the first full-fledged animation studio and academy in Nepal specializing in visual effects and 3D animation.

“I see a bright future for Nepali animation. I hope that in a not too distant future Nepal will be able to cater to each and every need of its prospective international clients,” says Joshi, the ex-Disney animator.

“We are always thinking about preserving our history and our centuries-old art, but what about the artists today? What legacy are we going to leave behind?” These questions frequently occur to Sudeep Balla, 31, a 2D visual artist, who has been working as a full-time artist since 2014, the year he got his bachelor’s degree in arts.

“As an artist, it is important for me to balance my artistic and financial freedoms,” he says. Balla, who is passionate about doing graffiti, mural and street art, is currently busy designing a restaurant wall in Bhaktapur. His commissioned work has a fixed deadline, a fixed canvas and a fixed plan. He was involved in painting the famous mural of Labim Mall and in many other public artworks around Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur.

“For commissioned work, you mostly work on someone else’s ideas. And as much as I like art, I would rather spend my time on my own ideas. The problem with that is there is no deadline. You need rigorous discipline to finish a work that you do for yourself because it feels like ‘I have time. I will eventually do it.’ And yet, the work that I do for myself are the ones I value the most.” He says that is where he finds his artistic freedom.

Balla feels people are now more accepting of art in all its forms, and public interest and involvement has increased since he started out. “I do not even want respect but I should get to work the way I want and my art should find a space in this world.” He says his artist friends feel the same way.

Balla, a Bhaktapur native, wishes there was more investment too with greater interest. He says local people and municipality are not interested in financially supporting the kind of art he and some of his friends want to do in Bhaktapur. “We are our own support for now. In the time we spend finding investors for a project, we can finish a mural,” he says.

Balla is in a three-member group “Devotee” that want to improve the art scene of Bhaktapur. “If each of us contributes just Rs 5,000, we have Rs 15,000 already.” Because his art is aimed at somehow adding to the historic value of Bhaktapur, he doesn’t want financial investment to be an obstacle.

“When local people see the impact that art brings to the community, they come forward to support us,” says Balla. He says when they start a work in a community, the locals invariably say, “Why is this even necessary? You are coming into our space and changing the way it was.” But when their work is finished, the locals realize its true value and they become so happy that they often invite the artists to their homes.

Balla also cites vandalism as a major problem for artists. “There are people who write and carve randomly on public walls and trees. They may destroy my art as well,” Balla says. “We need to respect art. If there was no vandalism, there would be more space for art.”

Another problem with artists in Bhaktapur, Balla adds, is their lack of marketing knowhow. He says artists should learn to self-manage their Instagram and Facebook pages so as to increase the value of their art.

“Art of Bhaktapur is similar to apples of Mustang. Outside dealers go to Mustang, take the juicy apples and sell them where they are needed for profit. A similar thing is happening to artworks of Bhaktapur. There are many artists but with little knowledge of marketing,” Balla explains. He asserts it is increasingly important to know the value of your work and how to market it.

And where does he draw his inspiration from? “Our artworks can be traced back to our experiences in childhood. Similarly we learn from other artists.” Balla says he feels dissatisfied with his work if he cannot show on canvas what he has in mind.

“I did exhibitions in college. As a part of my course work, I used to spend up to six months working on ideas for my paintings and getting them on canvas.” In class, students were asked to figure why they were interested in doing a particular art, what form it would eventually take and which colors it would encompass.

“An artist is expected to explain the story behind each color and the reason for making the artwork that size.” He says some students cried during the learning process because of the sheer pressure. “But once you get the hang of things, you have artistic freedom. Nobody can question your work after that and even if they do, you will have answers”.

Irish Pub at Lazimpat has always been the go-to place for expats of all backgrounds living in Kathmandu, especially the Irish. (Not to suggest it is any less popular among locals.) The complex opposite the famous Ambassador Hotel in Lainchaur hosts the semi-underground Irish Pub with its wooden-themed, dimly-lit ambience, with touches of green all over to represent Ireland’s favorite color.

 The menu boasts of Irish as well as international cuisines and the full-fledged bar offers a huge variety of local and imported drinks. Irish’s regular clientele also seem to love what little variety of Nepali-styled food it offers, especially the buff sukuti and the pork shyapta. Regular events at weekends, including live bands and DJ sessions, as well as special celebrations on St Patrick’s Day and the like, are what make Irish Pub the hotspot for partygoers.

PS: The pub photographer is damn good and you might want to drop by for a couple of photos when you have taken the trouble to dress in your best, if for nothing else.

THE MENU

Chef’s Special:

- Shepherd’s Pie

- Chicken Wrap

- Hummus

Opening hours: 3:00 pm-11:00 pm

Location: Lazimpat

Cards: Accepted

Meal for 2: Rs 2,000

Reservations: 01-4416027