FOR THE LOVE OF
MUSIC
Trinidad Guardian
January 1, 2000
Page 14
People whispered that he was "stupid" to forsake a
promising career in science to take up a role as a music educator. But Satanand Sharma, winner of an additional
island scholarship (science) in 1982, is nobody's fool.
He
was answering to the undeniable call of his Muse in 1983 when he decided to
bypass a career as an accountant (which he sampled as a trainee/employee of
Pannell Fitzpatrick) or as an engineer (which his better judgment told him he
should really pursue; moreover, the UWI had already accepted him as a student
when he decided to make the break) in order to delve deeper into music.
Having
covered some considerable distance on the road not normally taken by those with
an aptitude for science, 32-year-old Sharma declares calmly and with a great
deal of satisfaction, "It is so much a part of my identity and
personality, I can't imagine my life without music."
He
makes, music on the piano, the organ, the guitar, the drums and the pan. This tutor in the music certificate course
at UWI's Creative Arts Centre (CAC) confesses to "an obsession" with
his musical projects. "I like to
work hard."
For
him the process of creating or composing a piece or putting together a
performance, is a thrill for which there are few alternatives or parallels in
the sphere of his existence. "The
process of creating is far more exciting than the finished product."
When
the work is consummated on stage, his penchant for perfection doesn't allow him
the luxury of patting himself on the back.
Instead, he notices its weaknesses, its flaws because his objective is
always excellence, excellence, excellence.
However, it is a wholesome dissatisfaction that the experiences.
All
in all, he's happy with his life because he sees himself contributing to nation
building through his music. And pan,
that "amazing instrument," has a central role to play in the whole
process.
He taught
the instrument at a number of secondary schools and traces his relationship
with the pan to his pre-teen years at the Pan Pipers Music School in St
Augustine.
Under
the careful grooming of Principal Louise McIntosh, whom he regards as his
"mentor", and Harold Headley, then his pan tutor and now teaching
colleague, Sharma developed a passion for the instrument and blossomed into a
virtuoso. His preference has always
been for the double second.
In fact,
he used the double second extensively while studying on scholarship at Eastman
School of Music, University of Rochester, USA, from 1983 to 1987.
Of the
pan he says, "There is as much validity in it as an instrument as a piano
or a violin."
While
his father, the late Paul Sharma, a Presbyterian minister, failed to stimulate
his interest in the recorder when he was six, Sat nevertheless gravitated
to the pan and other instruments naturally.
His mother, Sita, also coaxed him with her piano-playing in church
and at home.