Nepal Music Center (NMC) is committed to the exchange of students, teachers, and performers at the national, regional, and international levels. Our exchange programs allow those involved to come into contact with musical traditions they may otherwise be unable to access. They are founded on the belief that one’s musical sensibilities can always be enriched, and that diversification is an effective method of enrichment. Reciprocity is also a fundamental guiding belief here. Be it at the national, regional, or international level, musicians from X all have something to learn from musicians from Y and vice versa; the roles “student” and “teacher” exist only as titles rather than mutually exclusive roles.
In its first four years, NMC has welcomed some thirty-five experts in various fields through its exchange program, including professors, composers, performers, sound engineers, choreographers, and directors from Norway, Sweden, the United States, the United Kingdom, China and France, among others. Not only did these individuals teach at Nepal Sangeet Vidhyalaya (NSV), they also held concerts and workshops around Nepal. At the same time, twelve Nepali musicians and music educators have been received in Sweden, Norway and China to attend and give workshops and concerts; several NSV students, for instance, performed at the Forde Folk Festival in Norway and the Ethno Festival in Sweden.
NMC is currently hosting two music teachers from the University of Agder (UiA), Norway, through the FK (Norwegian Peace Corps) Nepal program. Svein Westad has been giving Murchunga lessons at NSV with a very specific goal in mind. In Nepal, the Murchunga is used as a rhythmic accompaniment, but Svein wants to teach techniques of altering the tiny instrument’s pitch in order to play melodies. His goal is not simply to teach a new technique, but to add appeal to the Murchunga so that it finds its way into fusion and popular forms as well. Merethe Vadstein Welle has been teaching voice lessons at NMC since her arrival in November of 2009. She has also started a small choir, the first at NMC, who have performed on several occasions to enthusiastic responses.
Three Nepali music teachers, Prabhu Raj Dhakal, Suresh Bhajracharya and Rabin Lal Shresthab , have also been sent to Norway to teach singing, sarod and table respectively. In line with our belief in reciprocity, they are also taking classes in jazz history and music technology. Upon their return in August, they will be teaching at NSV for two years. This means that NSV can look forward to a Sarod faculty for the first time, as well as to the knowledge and experience these musicians have acquired abroad. We are sure that the students of the University of Agder are equally excited to learn from their teachers’ time here at NSV.