Infosys co-founder SD Shibulal’s family office is starting a new philanthropic initiative called Sangamam to revive art and culture. Born out of Shibulal’s personal interest in classical Carnatic music, Sangamam intends to create an ecosystem for music artists and lovers. 

“I believe that music has the ability to bring people together and create a common platform. Indian art and music are also cultural heritage that needs to be preserved. The initiative will conduct a bunch of events that will evangelize foundation activities as well as make it enjoyable for the audience,” Shibulal told businessline. 

The Sangamam series will bring live performances to Bengaluru, sharing the classical arts with a broad audience. At present, Sangamam concerts are planned two times every year. The Shibulal Family Philanthropic Initiatives (SFPI) intends to bring on stage artists such as Sudha Ragunathan, T Krishna and Aruna Sairam for the series. The first concert will take place on November 5 at Jyoti Nivas College Auditorium, Bengaluru, featuring Ranjini-Gayatri sisters.

Focus on education

Started in 1999, The Shibulal Family Philanthropic Initiatives (SFPI) runs various initiatives in the field of education, healthcare, social welfare, and organic farming, among others. However, the majority of their initiatives are in the education sector, including its flagship Vidyadhan scholarship programme, a residential scholarship for school students called Ankur, and Vidya Kreeda, scholarship for the higher education of talented sports players, among others.

Speaking about the family’s focus on education, Kumari Shibulal, co-founder & chairperson of SFPI, said the focus on facilitating education is inspired by the couple’s personal journey. “Both our parents were not much educated, but they understood the importance of it and provided us with education. We believe we are here now because of the education we have received,” said Kumari.

Along with the launch of Sangamam, SFPI is also working on increasing the scale of its programmes by collaborating with corporates and other philanthropists willing to sponsor education costs for adult children. Under the Vidyadhan scholarship program, which is aimed at supporting the college education of meritorious students from economically challenged families, SFPI will provide scholarships to 1600 students this year. In the next four to five years, SFPI wants to increase this to 5000 scholarships every year.

“Vidyadhan funds 80 per cent of the student’s education cost and provides mentorship for about five to six years. It has been a phenomenally successful program. We have 5000 children in the program and over 2500 children have already come out of the program and have become engineers, doctors, etc,” said Shibulal. In almost two decades of this scholarship program, some of these scholarship recipients have also come back to sponsor students in the more recent batches.

This week’s peek into Baltimore’s art scene gets spooky, then inspirational and, finally, goes behind the scenes of a theater getting a new look.

First stop on the Backstage Express is in the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall where the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra provides the spookiness as they perform the score for the 2017 film “Get Out.”

Next, learn about the Lemonade Selfie Museum which provides the perfect exhibits for Instagrammable photos.

Finally, get your hard hat ready as we go behind the scenes of the renovations at the Gordon Center for the Performing Arts.

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is embracing Halloween’s spooky season in a screening of Jordan Peale’s “Get Out,” featuring a live performance of the film’s score.

“It’s a unique opportunity to put the movie with the orchestra,” said Jonathan Rush, who is conducting the performance. “The orchestra is known for playing music that has its own emotions, but now you get to put that experience with the experience of a movie, and I think that it heightens the experience.”

As a BSO associate conductor and artistic director of the organization’s youth orchestra, Rush is no stranger to the task of studying scores and leading large groups, but his first time conducting “Movie with the Orchestra,” presented unique challenges.

“If someone gets whacked in the head, I have to make sure there’s a nice big boom with it. So it takes a lot of time looking at the score … and making sure we also keep up with the film,” he said.

Prep for Rush included watching what are called “studio videos” with no audio.

“I have these flashes on my screen that let me know exactly where my beat needs to be, but also let me know what measure I’m in related to the music,” he explained.

The 27-year-old conductor also said when performing with films there’s less musical liberty, such as slowing down or speeding up certain areas of the score.

“The timing has to be strict, because everything is recorded,” Rush said. “It has to be precise and accurate.”

After having performed during films such as “Star Wars” and “Harry Potter,” Rush said, “Get Out,” exposes new audiences to classical music.

“You get a different experience, with movies you wouldn’t necessarily expect to have music published or written for orchestras and here we are showing that, yes, it does exist.”

In addition to a good time enjoying the orchestra and the thriller, Rush hopes “Get Out” with the BSO orchestra will show that the organization goes beyond performing typical classical works.

“After this performance I want people to be spooked, I want them to be fulfilled, but then I want them to be curious about what the BSO can do next or what the BSO is going to do next,” he said.

The Lemonade Selfie Museum on Franklin Street in Baltimore provides a space for networking, celebrating good memories and promoting positivity and self-empowerment, a welcome development after the isolation required during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“[It] is essentially the museum of affirmations,” said director Alecia Brown. “Affirmations, for me as a mom and a woman, became a thing of reassuring the love for myself, outside of the love I have for the people around me. And so the museum is just a reminder for everyone [to] always love yourself first.”

The museum’s title takes a page from Beyoncé’s critically acclaimed sixth studio album, “Lemonade,” which in 2016 blessed the airwaves.

Featuring exhibits targeting all ages, Lemonade Selfie Museum guests are reminded of their dreams, their power and how far they’ve come.

There’s a room with caps and gowns and written on the wall is “Mama I made it. Another room contains an adult-friendly seesaw and features Hip Hop legend Notorious B.I.G’s lyrics “It was all a dream.” A pink staircase shows rapper Cardi B’s lyrics, “I climb to the top floor.” Guests are encouraged to get their inspiration and cute Instagram photos, by engaging with each exhibit and one another, while exploring their self expression.

“This is really creativity at its finest and through a lens that you can remember via your phone,” Brown said, adding that guests can also rent “old-style” Polaroid cameras. “Our museum is about creating memories, but memories of what your affirmations are. We even have an affirmation wall where people can write their affirmations, and it stays on there, as people come in and out of the museum.”

Other fun activations include a ‘90s nostalgia room with Game Boys and other old electronics, a studio set up so people can take photos as if they are recording songs and a “Checkers not Chess” theme.

The museum’s team intentionally left a few spaces blank, hoping to do more community partnerships with places such as Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) and local high schools.

“We want people to be able to show their own displays … and honor the artists we have inside of Maryland,” Brown said.

Founded in 1854, the Jewish Community Center (JCC) of Greater Baltimore, the oldest JCC in the country, continues to change as it follows the needs of the community it serves. The Peggy and Yale Gordon Center for the Performing Arts, founded in 1995 on the campus of the Rosenbloom Owings Mills JCC, also shifted, transforming from a classical music venue targeting Baltimore’s Jewish high society, to a creative gathering spot for the community at large.

The Gordon Center underwent seven-figures worth of renovations to adapt to the needs of their multipurpose space — fixing the rigging, sound and lighting. The center’s major renovations are concluding with the lobby.

“The lobby is a meeting space for lots of people of very different ethnic backgrounds, and we are very proud that the Gordon Center is representative of the entire community and county — both in the selection and curation of the shows that we have … and in the ticket purchasers,” said Sara Shalva, JCC chief arts officer.

“The reality is when you go to a theater or a live music experience you’re in a dark room. It’s not a party. The party is when you go out in the lobby,” Shalva said, where there’s discussion and vibrancy and connection.

Peter Michaelson, the center’s senior director and general manager, said the renovation has moved the center “away from the ‘90s” and better fits what the lobby has become: a gathering space, rented out by groups and organizations.

There’s new paint, carpet and lighting, and more open space. The underused, oversized coat room will become a concession area with a bar and cabinets. The new video wall is the “capstone piece” of the lobby renovations, Sharva said, explaining that it will serve many purposes from livestreaming to presentation spaces for business meetings.

Along with the renovated interior, the center is also rolling out a new ticketing platform and website.

The Gordon Center hopes to welcome back patrons in the lobby and 550-seat theater in early 2023 if not sooner. To maintain their season plans and continue programming during renovations, the center will use other resources and spaces, including its 2,000 seat outdoor lot with a giant screen.