Giving an Indian Musician the Opportunity of his Life by taking him to the West

I already told you that in the year 2005 the musician whom I had taken along at the beginning of the year to my Europe journey had disappointed me with his attitude. I had taken the decision not to take him along anymore. I knew however about the benefits of having a musician in my program – music is always great – so when I went to Europe again in the end of 2005, I was looking again for a musician to take along.

I don’t know if you are aware of how big an opportunity this is for just about any musician in India. It is a dream to be offered a program in the west, a chance to travel the world and get famous – or at least known – out of India! Once you made to the west, they think, there is gold lying on the streets, all roads to success, wealth and happiness are open to you and whenever you just get a hint of a chance, grab it and don’t let it go!

It is not surprising that musicians think this way and I guess it is partly even true. In India there are uncountable mediocre, a lot of good and many very good musicians. It is a very big country and not every musician who would be qualified actually receives the recognition and acknowledgement that would suit their talent and practice. Once you get a stage in the west however, together with an established other performer, be that a musician, a guru, a lecturer or anything similar, you suddenly have the chance to show your abilities to a market that is not yet satisfied and to a huge number of new contacts. For many musicians, their first journey to the west is the beginning of a successful international career.

For many however it is their first and last trip because they are not open enough for the other culture, because money is actually not lying around on the road for everyone to just pick it up or because they really are not as talented and gifted as the person thought who took them along.

They all try however and that’s how I have been asked millions of times by nearly every Indian musician I know whether I would take them on one of my tours around the world. I was thus not lacking the choice when I was looking for a musician in 2005. I had taken players for different instruments along with me to different countries at different times and now tried to learn from my experience while selecting one for this trip.

I finally chose a musician who had travelled with me in India already, whom I thus knew personally and about whom I could tell that he had enough talent and practice for the work that I had for him. He was overjoyed to hear from me and immediately made his plans to come along. It didn’t take long and he had a visa, a ticket and his suitcase ready.

I had a new musician – and of course once more, I made new experiences with him but that is something I will tell you about next week.