Hitting all the right notes
A recipient of the prestigious Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute Senior Performing ArtsFellowship, Narendra Datar is a familiar face on the classical music performance circuit.
However, when he expressed a desire to pursue a career in music, his family expressed concern.
“They asked me to focus on engineering to ensure I made a reasonable living. Music could be a hobby, at best, they felt. I understood where they were coming from, I had seen many artistes who were pursuing music full-time struggle financially.”
He graduated from IIT Kanpur in Electrical Engineering. When a professor from the University of New Brunswick whom Datar met in Mumbai described Canada in glowing terms, he explored the process for a student visa, and came to Canada in 1984 to do his Master’s in Computer Science at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton.
He looks back on those early years with a smile.
“I didn’t face any challenges as such. I was there as a student, there were many international students on campus, and I also found a job relatively easily.”
What was not so easy was finding an accompanist when it came to music. It is difficult for a vocalist to perform without harmonium and tabla, and so the man who had taught himself tabla as a kid now taught himself how to play the harmonium.
He recorded himself playing the tabla on a cassette tape – yes, this was in the days before the ubiquitous cell phones that can do everything – and then sang while playing the harmonium. A one-man show.
“It worked out okay!” he chuckles. Things improved when he moved to Toronto, where he not only found many talented accompanists, but also people who, knowing he was single and not a great cook, would invite him to share an Indian meal.
Datar recalls an incident from his student days, when he shared an apartment with two students, one from Mysore and the other from Kolkata.
“None of us could cook, really, and it was more challenging for us to eat what we came up with than the actual process of cooking! My friend from Mysore was the most experienced in cooking,
but we’d take turns, or attempt to. The Bengali friend begged us to let him off the hook, he couldn’t do it, he said. We insisted, and when we returned that evening, we saw him all ready to go out.
What about dinner, we asked. ‘It’s ready,’ he said. ‘Eat it at your own risk – I am going out!’ The bonds forged during those days remain strong.”
Datar tells those who wish to make a career in the arts to be willing to diversify. “I had to, out of sheer necessity. Even though I am trained in classical music, I had to sing bhajans and ghazals, as well as songs in Marathi, Hindi, Kannada and Gujarati. Singing is a performing art, one can only grow if one performs. Since there are not that many opportunities to perform classical music in North America, I tell new performers not box themselves in one genre. Based on your personal preferences, and within your acceptable boundaries, broaden your field. It will only enhance your opportunities, will make you a better artiste.”