Trinity College London includes Bollywood music in syllabus

Kolkata: The international success of A R Rahman`s Oscar-winning music in `Slumdog Millionaire` has prompted Trinity College, London to include Bollywood and Indian classical music in its curriculum. "We are changing our syllabus to keep it fresh, relevant and contemporary. It should reflect global trends and including Bollywood music is a way of doing that. This brings inclusiveness in our repertoire," Sarah Kemp, chief executive of the Trinity College, told PTI during a visit here today. "Bollywood music has been catapulted to centrestage. The international success of Rahman`s music has a very important role in bringing Indian music to the world platform," Kemp said explaining the reason behind change in the syllabus. Under the new syllabus which began this January, Bollywood music has been included in the electronic keyboard section of the music examination. The college has also started to test the interest of its global students in Indian classical music. "Under a pilot project in London, we have offered Carnatic music of south India to some of our students. Depending on the feedback we might include Indian classical into our syllabus permanently," Nick Keyworth, Chief Examiner of Music of the college, said. Overall, the focus was on rock, pop and jazz which were hot favourites among students, he said. In music, assessments were offered in piano, violin, viola, cello, classical guitar, plectrum guitar, keyboards, flutes, recorders, singing and drumkits. The Trinity College delivers around 500,000 assessments each year worldwide, out of which 36,000 were from India. It is a leading international examinations board providing qualifications in the English language and performing arts including music, dance, drama and speech. Present in over 60 countries all over the world, the pan-India network has over 30 centres. PTI