I thoroughly enjoyed the performance and I am sincerely grateful for all the love,” says 14-year-old violinist Martina Charles, who impressed the audience with her performance during the Centre Stage Festival, organised by the Kiran Nadar Museum on December 8.
With Humayun’s tomb and the 700-year-old Hazrat Nizamuddin dargah as the backdrop, five young performers from the world of dance and music exhibited their talent at Sundar Nursery’s amphitheatre. Aditi Jaitly, the curator of the festival, says the aim of the event is “to showcase a young generation of artists and give them a platform early in life”. Martina is one of them.
The young prodigy performed Beethoven’s ‘Violin Sonata Number 5’, commonly known as the ‘Spring Sonata’. Standing right in the centre with her violin, donning a pearl-white gown, Martina was accompanied by Anuvrat Choudhary, a Western-classical pianist.
The young violinist, who hails from Thrissur, recently completed all eight grades and the three diplomas in violin at Trinity College, London, and received the fellowship of the College. She is the youngest in India, and the first person in Kerala, to achieve this feat. “My parents and teachers were extremely happy and proud, especially my father. He was happy that I pushed the boundaries and put in the hard work,” she says.
Charles Devasia is a professional keyboardist; he performs mostly in church. In his compositions, he often uses the tunes of the violin—while growing up, Martina fell in love with them. “I remember I was seven when I told my parents that I wanted to learn violin and become a professional violinist,” she says.
Though working as a young musician in India, she has never faced any challenge, but her parents did. “They were under a lot of pressure. Many people in our family and social circle questioned them for supporting my ambition. They were often discouraged, but nothing could shake their resolve,” Martina says. “They also sold their house in our hometown, Kannur, so that I could move to Thrissur, a centre of the performing arts, and pursue learning violin under experts.”
While following her dream of becoming an ace violinist, Martina gives equal attention to her academics. She earlier balanced her practice sessions, performances and studies with ease but ever since the frequency of her shows has increased, it has become difficult to manage it all.
Therefore, she switched to home schooling. “Home school has made my life a bit easy. I study between my practice sessions, and while I am travelling for performances. Music helps me concentrate better on academics.” Martina’s next goal is to represent India in international competitions of music and violin.
