INSTRUMENTAL SUCCESS

Pink bougainvillea in full bloom outside, a piano the colour of midnight and the lilting strains of ‘Main zindagi ka saath nibhata chala gaya’. There are few things that can put you more in charity with the world than to hear pianist Brian Silas play on a Delhi spring day.

Silas is that rare pianist who is not enamoured of Western classical music. Instead his heart, and piano, belong to soulful, old Bollywood songs. This makes his melodies at once familiar and magical, when songs you know are transformed by the tinkle of ivory.

“Certain songs just sound extraordinary on the piano,” says Silas. “That’s why they call it the king of instruments.”

On April 3, Silas will perform at a concert to celebrate 20 years of him playing music on stage. His first association with the piano, however, goes back to his school days at Kanpur’s Methodist High School, and his music teacher Mrs Behera. Those early lessons were not a success. “Neither of us had the patience,” laughs Silas.

But that early brush with the instrument sparked a lifelong romance. “I wouldn’t have been a musician if it weren’t for this craving to play the piano,” Silas says. He quit his job as a marketing manager with an entertainment centre and started playing the piano professionally at 34; he has never in fact learnt how to read music. His technique is to play by ear, his compositions reflecting a combination of skill and instinct. “It was like a gift from God,” says Silas. “Whatever I heard once, I could reproduce it on the keyboard.”

Playing old Bollywood classics on the piano takes rare skill. Indian melodies are