Spic-Macay doing very good work
The name Spic Macay is synonymus with Indian Classical Music now. Years of selfless hard work put in by the group, has ensured the survival & growth of Indian Classical Music.
Spic Macay Organises Classical Music festivals in different parts of the nation in various universities also which has helped & encouraged students in developing a taste for this divine art.
The Society for the Promotion of Indian Classical Music and Culture Amongst Youth (SPIC MACAY) founded in 1977 is a non-profit, voluntary apolitical and participatory student movement dedicated to enriching education through the spread and appreciation of India"s classical heritage with its attendant legends, rituals,mythology and philosphy.This voluntary movement of young people has been involved in the arduous task of sensitising the average student to the aesthetics of the Indian classical milieu, especially to the performing arts. The hidden agenda of the movement ,however,would be manifold, namely,to include a sense of service in a truly voluntary spirit , to be custodians of one"s own culture with some say in its rapid decimation and to appreciate and enshrined in the arts.The movement would appeal to the young energy of the student,seeing as it does, the value of the formative years in school and college.
SPIC MACAY organises more than 1000 classical music dance concerts,lecture demonstrations,talks and other related activities,every year in schools and universities through its 150 centers(chapters) spread across India and abroad,Yet ,SPIC MACAY is much more than a youth body arranging free concerts.
An idea originates and finds someone through whom it can manifest itself . That fortunate someone , experiences during the birth process , a feeling which is beyond description . Imagine for a moment that you are witnessing the creation of the universe .
The "big bang" of SPIC MACAY came in 1972 at a concert of Ustad Aminuddin Dagar and Ustad Zia Fariduddin Dagar at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York .
After a few sporadic concerts (no-table amongst them was that of Ustad Ali Akbar Khan) at Columbia University during the period 1972-76 , the idea took a more defined direction in 1977 in India .In early 1978 , a concert of the Dagar Bandhu was held at I.I.T Delhi under the banner of MEFORG(Mechanical Engineering final Year Operations Research Group). It was a failure in terms of the number of people who attended. However in 1979, a two -day programme again at I.I.T Delhi of Ustad Bismillah Khan , Dagar Bandhu , Ustad Amjad Ali Khan and Ustad Shahid Parvez turned out to be a marginal success.MEFYS(Mechanical Engineering final Year Students)
organised the programme . It was at this programme that the name
SPIC MACAY was first launched and the aim expressed was not to fight westernisation but the process of deculturisaton . The first lecture-demonstration series LEC-DEM "79 was also conducted in the same year when six Delhi based artistes ,Pandit Birju Maharaj ,Sonal Mansingh ,Ustad Asad Ali Khan, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, Dagar Bandhu and Ustad Munnawar Ali Khan gave three presentations at the
Jawaharlal Nehru University (Godawari Hostel), Lady Irvin College and Miranda House respectively . The name FEST for our annual festival was used in 1980 and FEST "80 was conducted in a number of educational institutions all over Delhi . FEST "81 took SPIC MACAY to Ahmedabad , Mumbai , Banglore , Calcutta , and Kharagpur .In 1982 , the first lecture -demonstration series in schools was conducted when Ustad Zia Mohiuddin Dagar , Ustad Amjad Ali Khan and Smt. Sonal Mansingh gave three lec-dems each at Modern School(Barakhamba Road), Sardar Patel Vidyalaya & Ramjas School No.3 in Delhi .From then on SPIC MACAY started spreading
to many colleges and schools all over the country . 1986 saw the introduction of folk arts & crafts into the gamut of SPIC MACAY .
The scholarship scheme began in the year 1986 to help give students a glimpse into the age-old Guru-Shishya tradition .This was also the year
that the first Annual Convention was held at Hyderabad .In 1988 the first programme was conducted abroad: Pandit Jasraj at the University of Connecticut at Harford . " THE EYE " magazine was first released in 1991 as a thought provoking "written word movement " for the youth .
Virasat , a festival comprising performances , workshops in folk ,classical arts , literature , theatre , cinema , yoga ,and other areas of our heritage was launched for the first time in Dehradun in the year 1995 .
As the SPIC MACAY movement spreads both geographically and in content , great care must be taken that the direction and intensity are not lost and that at least a glimmer of the original spark remains.
Suyash Gupta
by Spic-Macay doing very good work