Tibetan Music Center (TMC)*
ཨ་རི་བོད་ཀྱི་རོལ་དབྱངས་གཅེས་སྐྱོང་ཁང་།
Mission Statement
The Tibetan Music Center strives to preserve and revitalize Tibetan performing arts through practice and digital archive.
Vision: Create a space to learn, archive, share and offer mentorship in order to sustain and preserve the rich heritage of Tibetan Performing Arts for the present and future generations.
BACKGROUND:
Tibet, often called the ocean of songs, was known for its incredible tradition of singing and playing music in their individual households and local gatherings since time immemorial. Like many other ancient cultures, music was deeply ingrained and intertwined in Tibetan people's daily lives as well.
But in the aftermath of China’s occupation of Tibet in the 1950’s, unprecedented communist propagandas and political repressions incited a wide scale cultural genocide across the Tibetan plateau and eventually irradicated the entire musical culture and art within a short span of time. Consequently, the once thriving culture for music and performing art suffered a serious setback and deprived a generation of young Tibetan artists of their own musical heritage.
While in exile, India, TIPA under the leadership of His Holiness the Dalai Lama has been very effective in promoting traditional Tibetan performing arts, offering professional training to hundreds of young and aspiring Tibetan artists. Besides TIPA, both within Tibet and in exile, no robust campaigns or endeavors were undertaken to strengthen collection, archival and preservation of our rich performing arts and musical culture. The center will include the contribution of non-Tibetan artists such as Beastie Boys and others related to Tibetan culture.
The Tibetan Music Center is primarily focused to preserve the legacy of Tibetan artists in three different areas:
-
Lutsa-Tibetan Music Archival: Gather audios, videos, photos, books, and posters related to Tibetan music and performing arts. Lutsa would strive to digitize all the existing audio and video interviews of roughly hundred hours from older musicians and artists. Lutsa (1915-1983) is the name of a music teacher who taught hundreds of students in exile, India.
-
Lapa-Music Education: Organize workshops, concert tours, summer camps, trainings, and offer scholarships and cultural exchange programs. Lapa is the nickname of our beloved opera master Gen Norbu Tsering la (1923-2013). He was a child prodigy and taught hundreds of students in exile, India.
-
Mila-Studio: This studio will facilitate all the audio and video productions including editing, digitizing music and multitude of other visual arts related to Tibetan musical preservation goals.
TMC is the brainchild of Tashi Sharzur aka Techung. He’s a legendary Tibetan musician who has produced, performed and embodied traditional Tibetan music and performing arts since childhood. He has received years of professional training from the iconic Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts, Dharamsala, India. He’s one of the founding members of Chaksampa Tibetan Dance and Opera troupe, based in San Francisco, USA. He’s also a recipient of the prestigious traditional artist fellowship at the New York Foundation of the Arts in 2018.
If you are interested in supporting this project, do consider donating a seed money online via Paypal or Zelle at 518-418-6583 or write a check to:
Tashi Sharzur
8 Otter Way, Box 2
Lake Placid, NY 12946
or
*TMC is a working title. The other titles are Tibetan Music Preservation Center.