Fr Lourdinho Barreto- A tribute

The death of Fr Lourdinho Barreto, Director of Western Music wing of the Kala Academy, must have come to all in Goa, even to those who know that he has been shifted to Bombay’s Jaslok Hospital for treatment of an ailment not diagnosed in our hospitals, wwith great shock and disbelief.

Only last December when he had conducted the concert of his Philharmonic Choir he seemed fit and in good health and was bubbling over the imminent departure of the choir to Vienna (Austria) to participate in a competition to be held in May, least suspecting of his own departure to the beyond.

Even if he were aware that his Choir was not of the international standards and it would be quite tough for the Goan choir to make any significant impact on the judges of the contest in Vienna, his great ambition was to project Goa on the people abroad as well as afford exposure to this group of high quality of the instrumental and choral expression in Europe. It must also be said to his discredit that he had great confidence in himself and a high opinion of his own abilities.

This may be a result of his excelling throughout his academic career in the Seminary and in Rome where he was sent by the ecclesiastical authorities to the Pontifical Institute and the National Conservatoire to pursue further studies in music and where he secured the degress in Plain Chant, Piano and composition.

His teacher in the Escola Primaria Ms Filomena Mascarenhas at Maxem, to which school Lourdinho as a small boy would go from his native Galgibag after crossing the river in a boat, on hearing of his death, said in grief that he was a very bright and diligent student, the best in the class. Musiclly he would try to compose works fusing Western and Indian trends, intense being his study and interest in the Ragas and Indian music.

In the programmes he would present he always included his own compositions in Konkani or his own arrangements of the well-known Konkani religious and folk songs. In his death Goa has lost a dedicated musician and teacher and what’s more a Goan who was truly Indian.