When music is the musician's soul

Mahjabeen at the piano

Mahjabeen Rahman has been teaching at the Ecole de Musique, Alliance Francaise for nine years, apart from her career as an English Language teacher at Stamford University. She's been into music since her childhood and plays the flute plus sings in concerts and churches. She has had training in both eastern ( Rabindra Shangeet and Nazrul Shangeet)and western classical and contemporary music.
Although she is currently studying English Language Teaching as well as music in Malaysia, she flies in regularly to Dhaka to teach her students, who are mostly young. Mahjabeen caters not only to the upper echelons of Dhaka society but also the not the so well- to -do, teaching for charity as the occasion calls for. This year, for the “Fete de la Musique” at Alliance Francaise, she hopes to present guitar, flute and voice for the entertainment of music enthusiasts. She hopes to do her PhD either in UK or in France or even in the US -- going in for higher studies in both music and English Language Teaching.
Speaking to “The Daily Star”, sitting in the well-lit Café Veranda, over a cup of steaming coffee, the buoyant and spirited music enthusiast recounts her experiences and talks of her hopes and aspirations, specially in the field of music. Asked if she preferred to teach, learn or play the piano, Mahjabeen says , I prefer teaching as I can transmit my knowledge and create more awareness of music and musicians.
“ I also love to sing for myself as well as a member of choirs, which I've been doing for five years. Through my experience in singing, I came to know about modern progression in music. Also, when I was in choir, my practical application of theoretical learning expanded, as we sang in different parts, while I myself mostly sang in mezzo soprano.”
In her experience as a teacher of music for nine years, her forming of the Ecole de Musique for piano, she dreamt of having other instruments as well, such as the guitar and violin. Today there is the classical guitar to accompany piano and voice in the school. She says that she dreams of the greater awareness of western music among young people is coming true.
“Every concert that I direct each year is memorable to me,” says Mahjabeen,” I plan to play in the coming concert in 2008 with my student Elita Karim. This year too, like all the years, I train my students in preparation of the yearly fete. I'm selecting music pieces and preparing the students' voices in anticipation of the concert. I hope to give them a vigorous training after four months, revising everything, Mahjabeen says.
Asked about her overseas experience, she enumerates her Master lessons, "I'll study music along with English at Nottingham or in the US. My formal studies will have music as a second interest.” Her main interest is music as music is her soul, as Mahjabeen puts it, “ It is the reason of my living and the reason to go on in life. When I began professional training I was already in a different track, i.e. English Literature. Now that I'm into ELT for six years ( English Language Teaching) I feel I've wasted some of my years.”
As a student of Dhaka International Music School -- which had Korean and Bangladeshi teachers -- she and her group trained under privileged children at Mirpur , “New Sprout” for almost a year ,and this is what she finds most memorable .