Singapore Indian Fine Arts Society
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The Singapore Indian Fine Arts Society (Abbreviation: SIFAS) is an organisation that teaches Indian classical arts, including Indian classical music, in Singapore.
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[edit] Founding History
Founded in 1949 with a small group of dedicated music teachers from India, Malaysia and Singapore, SIFAS has now grown into an internationally recognised institution of Indian classical music institutions employing renowned music exponents of India to conduct and facilitate music courses ranging from classical dance, instrumental music and vocal music in both Hindustani and Carnatic music categories. Recently it also conducts drawing and painting classes for both enthusiasts and serious students regardless of age.
[edit] Organisation
The society itself is divided into three schools of instruction, The Academy, The Performing Arts Co and recently the Visual Arts School has been installed. The highly skilled staff employed in the organisation not only teach but perform regularly in Singapore and abroad to keep their performing standards and passing the fresh experience to their students. Most of such concerts performed by the staff and are supported by the public. As the emphasis on the standard and quality of music is given prime importance in the method of instruction, dedicated students of SIFAS ace in performing arts locally and internationally.
[edit] Management
The institution itself is a non-profit organisation, and which is run by private funding from public and is a member of the National Arts Council in Singapore. Currently at the helm of the institution is Mrs. Lalitha Vaidyanathan who is the principal for more than a decade. Mrs Lalitha herself is an exponent of the Carnatic violin and has worked with eminent composers such as Dr. L. Subramaniam and Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan. A chemistry professor by training, Mrs Lalitha is a prolific musician recognised in the world over and her performances brought her numerous awards from Japan, Thailand, Australia, Malaysia, India, Sweden and Hong Kong. Under her leadership the institution has grown tremendously with a student enrolment exceeding 1000. Both staff and the management committee actively review and improvise learning techniques methods as well as organising cultural activities in Singapore.
[edit] Major Events
The organisation also believes in promoting the Indian arts beyond the Indian student and the institution itself has created fine non-Indian exponents of classical Indian music. Working actively with national arts programmes, the institution hosts the prestigious annual event; Festival of Indian Classical Music and Dance. With the government's recognition of the event as a national cultural event, the festival itself brings the best talents as well as budding artistes from all over the world especially India to showcase their abilities. Internationally reputed artistes perform in the world famous Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay.
The National Arts Council Indian Music Competition is another major annual event, where classical indian music schools in Singapore showcase their talents and SIFAS has always clinched the top three spots with talents exhibited by both teachers and students.
[edit] Student Atmosphere
Students of all races come and study in the institution and the bulk of them are from India. Some of them, being already artistes also enrol themselves in the institution to acquire advanced schooling in music and dance. Age is no barrier to learning the arts and SIFAS has not restricted anybody regardless of age as long as they sincerely put interest for the arts.
