A tribute to maestro Santiago Lusardi Girelli

From the moment

Santiago Lusardi Girelli

made his first appearance in Goa in 2013, it was clear the Spanish-Argentinean dynamo was someone extraordinary.

I vividly recall that debut, conducting the disparate assemblage he had knitted together as the

Goa University Choir

. It was an unusual setting: the 16th century Igreja de Santa Cruz. More novel still was the repertoire: songs in Latin, Spanish and English, as well as indigenous Native American languages. All those present immediately realised they were witnessing a culture-shifting landmark event.

Much of the promise inherent in that sparkling commencement was realised. The Goa University Choir established itself as an exceptional body of musicians, and kept on thrilling audiences with sublime performances in increasingly wonderful heritage locations.

It was Santiago’s individual efforts that opened up concert venues in the stunning

St Augustine

ruins in Old Goa, and the magnificent St Cajetan church nearby. Thanks to him, the spectacular Ketevan Sacred Music Festival was born. Indian audiences got to listen to brilliant compositions – spanning the gamut from ancient to ultra-modern – that no one else would have thought to try.
The honorific

maestro

isn’t tossed around lightly. Many

conductors

come and go without ever earning the right. That was not the case with Santiago, who carried the weight of leadership with effortless, consummate grace. People followed him implicitly, and wherever he went in India he was recognised as a genuine ustaad. This is why his tragic, unfair death from COVID-19 this week is being mourned so widely.

Here in India’s smallest state, amidst anxiety about demographic dissolution, it is widely suspected that newcomers and migrants do not care about Goa. Very often, they are held to be responsible for the rapid degradation of everything valuable that Goans hold dear.

But the exact opposite was true of Santiago, who actually embodied and exemplified much of what is wonderful about our singularly inclusive, many-layered culture. The Goa University Choir is an especially wonderful example. There were insiders, outsiders, Indians, foreigners, men and women, in ages ranging from teenagers right to grandparents, with everyone making exquisite music that was carefully derived from every corner of the world.

COVID-19 sometimes seems to single out the best amongst us, and Santiago was certainly that. On May 1, he posted on Facebook – it was his last message to the world – that “Here I am, once more, like so many times in my life, fighting in chaos. As you can imagine it has not been easy, the loneliness, the uncertainties, the pains and the daily struggle to breathe, and all this being a witness to how this country that I love so much is suffering.”

He gave thanks “for the immense tenderness I have received in my life,” saying “although it hurts, and although a gale is blowing in my lungs, I am here on the warpath.” Then this admirable 41-year-old, who wanted to come and live in India with his beautiful young family, wound up dying here instead. May he rest in peace.