KJSCE Symphony
Symphony, the annual cultural festival of K. J. Somaiya College of Engineering, has created its name and popularity among Engineering and Management institutes far and wide for the last decade. Every year many students from various institutes be a part of this festival. The main aim is to promote, encourage and exhibit the talents of the students on a common platform and create interest in the classical, vocal and instrumental music. Symphony hosts more than 9000 students every year. Symphony has been graced by artists of the magnitude of Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia, Pt ShivKumar Sharma, Louis Banks, Hariharan, Indus Creed, Parikrama, KK, Bombay Vikings, Taufiq Qureshi, Dagar, Suraj Jagan etc. The event also has a social touch to propagate a message relevant to the times like AIDS awareness, etc. There have also been Auto Shows and an Army display at Symphony. The organization is done by students which is also a time for building strong camaraderie and teamwork. Many students look back fondly at the memories gathered during this phase of their lives.
History and Growth
Symphony started off back in January 1987 as Jamboree, the first cultural festival of K. J. Somaiya College of Engineering. It had events like Treasure Hunt, MusicAL Antakshari, to name a few. Jamboree’s second edition was held on 6 February 1988 which featured one-act plays, open house events and the highlight of the event being a spectacular display of Jamboree on a 27’’ TV screen with ZX Spectrum. It was christened as Symphony for the time in 1994. The budget for the festival was over 1 lakh, by means of various sponsors, notably Pepsi. The highlight of Symphony ‘94 was a night featuring Ustad Zakir Hussain.
In 1999, Symphony was acclaimed as the ‘Best Festival of Mumbai’ featuring performances by notable stars like Hariharan, Devaki Pandit, Fazal Qureshi, Taufiq Qureshi, Louis Banks, Sultan Khan to mention a few. Colgate was one of the main sponsors for that edition.
In 2000, Symphony celebrated the entry into the 21st Century by ‘Symphony Millennium’. Highlights of Symphony Millennium were Lit-Orat Events by Tata Infotech, A fusion night featuring Ranjit Barot, Karl Peters, performances by Sairam from ‘Aisa bhi Kabhi Hota Hai’ fame, Kalakshetram from Kerala and many others.
In 2001, Symphony was dedicated to the victims of the Gujarat earthquakes. It was celebrated on a moderate scale, paying homage to the affected of the calamity. Special performances featured Sajid Khan and the pop-rock band strings. Symphony 2002 had an exhilarating performance from the rock band Parikrama.
In 2007, Symphony had a workforce of 850 odd students, It was highlighted by the grand exhibition from the Indian Navy, along with other events which included Auto Expo, Dramatics competition and the Pro Night which had an audience of more than 2000 people.
In 2008, Pre-events were introduced for the first time in Symphony, which were Go-karting and Bowling competitions. Along with that, English and Hindi solo performances, charcoal painting, wall painting, mock-stock, spoofy-wood, slope cricket and anti-chess were the highlighted events of that edition.
In 2009, K. J. Somaiya College of Engineering celebrated its silver jubilee. Symphony, for the first time, was celebrated for 3 days. The theme of this version of Symphony was ‘La Fete - The Festival’. Joey and Jeeto, the mascots of Symphony were revived in this edition. An important highlight of Symphony 2009 was the seminar hosted by the Mumbai Police to create social awareness among college students. Several new events, like workshops on photography, digital art, dance, animation, kickboxing, etc. were introduced. Special events like Tarot reading, Karmik Yoga workshops, paintball and miniature car show were held.
In 2011, Symphony was held on the 4th and 5 February, with the theme of ‘Tech-Cultural Carnival’. It had a total of 54 events, with students participating from 75 colleges in Mumbai. Symphony opened with Contraptions by Team Contrivance, Lezim, Stunt Bike Show, Malakhamb, UV Dance, Street Dance and Freestyle Football. Day 1 of Symphony featured a grand performance by noted singer Tochi Raina. Day 2 of this edition included a Pro-Night with Labh Janjua - The king of Punjabi Pop music.
In 2012, Symphony was held on the 8th, 9th and 10 February. It was covered on a large scale by UTV Bindass. The unique theme for this edition was ‘It’s all Greek to me’. Opening programs were bicycle stunt shows, Ninjutsu and Bhangra. Pre-events included sumo suit, archery and zorbing. Extensive PR took the form of an open-bus ride around famous colleges of Mumbai. Highlighted events were the DJ night at the quadrangle and a performance by the pop-rock band Rang.
In 2013, Symphony was held on the 8th and 9 February. On 6 February, a special sports event - ’Symphony Sports’ was held on a small scale. This was the budding point of KJSCE Skream, the annual national level sports festival of KJSCE. PR events for the festival included an open-deck bus ride with the participation of 100 volunteers. Day 1 of Symphony had events like the finale of the AM bands competition, street dance, Inter-college fashion show, and a 2-hour DJ eve. Day 2 of the event consisted of Faculty Antakshari and a celebrity appearance by Piyush Jha of ‘Mumbaistaan’ fame. Other special events included a performance by ‘Rang’ at the Open Air Theatre, Film promotions by Vivek Oberoi and Neha Sharma, a DJ Eve, a Model United Nations conference and a dance competition judged by Twinkle Kapoor and Feroz Khan.
In 2015, It was the first year of Symphony Shield, the inter-departmental sports-cultural competition. It was also the year marking the incubation of Parvaah, the social initiative by KJSCE. The Parvaah petition was signed by Ranbir Kapoor, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Kapil Sharma, Samir Somaiya. Celebrities who graced Symphony 2015 were Ganesh Acharya, Anu Malik, Sushant Singh Rajput, Shraddha Sharma of Vh1 Coke Studio, Coshish, the Hindi Progressive Rock band and Sparsh, the Hindi Alternative Rock band.
In 2016, Symphony was celebrated on 24th, 25th and 26 February. It had a massive footfall of more than 7000 people which included students from across Somaiya and participants from around Mumbai Symphony 2016 hosted the appearance and performances of celebrities like DJ Zaeden, Arjun Kanungo, Shirley Sethia of the YouTube fame, daily soap artists like Ragini Khanna, Karan Wahi, Sukirti Kandpal and Suyyash Rai, a stand up act from Sapan Verma of East India Comedy, a thrilling performance by the rock band, The Local Train and an Indo-western style fusion performance by The Indian Jam Project. Symphony 2016 saw the second edition of Parvaah, the social initiative by KJSCE. Team Parvaah celebrated Christmas Eve in an orphanage with a secret Santa surprise event for 120 children; distribution of cakes, chocolates and gifts took place. Parvaah was supported by dignitaries like our education ministier, Vinod Tawde and Rohit Suri (President of Jaguar Land Rover)
Events
Pro Nights
Pro Nights of KJSCE feature bands, musicians and talented artists from in and around India. Pro Nights have artists with a widespread genre from Classical to Heavy Metal Bands, from Sufi Singers to Punjabi Pop artists, Symphony unites all spectrums of talents. Symphony ‘94 featured Ustad Zakir Hussain. The later years from 1998 to 2000 featured performances by stars like Hariharan, Devaki Pandit, Fazal Qureshi, Taufiq Qureshi, Louis Banks, Sultan Khan, A fusional night featuring Ranjit Barot, Karl Peters, performances by Sairam from ‘Aisa bhi Kabhi Hota Hai’ fame, Kalakshetram from Kerala and many others. Symphony 2001 had special performances featuring the pop-rock band strings and had a rocking performance from Parikrama in 2002. The Indian Classical-pop group Bombay Vikings hit the stage in Symphony 2008. Symphony 2011 featured a pro night with Labh Janjua - The king of Punjabi Pop music. The pop rock-band Rang performed in Symphony for two consecutive years in 2012 and 2013. Symphony 2015 witnessed a musical performance by Shraddha Sharma, Coshish, the Hindi Progressive Rock band and Sparsh,the Hindi Alternative Rock band. Symphony 2016 had performance from Shirley Setia of the YouTube fame, who rocked the stage and got the audience grooving to her tunes. Along with that Symphony 2016 witnessed a breathtaking performance from The Local Train who took the stage by storm.
Artists and Celebrities
Symphony has been hosting a number of artists and celebrities over the years. The Pro Night celebrities have been Ustad Zakir Hussain, Hariharan, Fazal and Taufiq Qureshi, Louis Banks, Sultan Khan, Karl Peters, Labh Janjua, Shraddha Sharma, Arjun Kanungo and Shirley Setia. Symphony has had rock concerts of bands like Strings, Parikrama, Bombay Vikings, Coshish, Sparsh and The Local Train. It has also hosted mainstream Bollywood celebrities like Sushant Singh Rajput promoting his upcoming movie ‘Detective Byomkesh Bakshi’ along with other celebs Ganesh Acharya and Anu Malik in 2015, Sumit Nagdev, Niraj Sridhar, Manoj Joshi, Sajid Khan, Tochi Raina with her soulful performance in 2011, Piyush Jha of ‘Mumbaistaan’ fame, Film promotions were done by Vivek Oberoi and Neha Sharma in 2013, a dance competition judged by Twinkle Kapoor and Feroz Khan, Symphony was graced by daily soap artists like Ragini Khanna, Karan Wahi, Sukirti Kandpal and Suyyash Rai.
Flagship Events
Symphony has hosted special flagship events in some of its editions like Symphony 2007 was host to a grand exhibition by the Indian Navy. Pre-events were introduced for the first time in Symphony 2008, which were Go-karting and Bowling competitions. An important highlight in symphony 2009 was the seminar by the Mumbai Police to create social awareness among college students, along with special events like Tarot reading, Karmik Yoga workshops, paintball and miniature car show.
Parvaah
Parvaah is a social initiative of K. J. Somaiya College of Engineering started under Symphony in 2015 with the aim of creating awareness and bringing about a change. It is inspired by the philosophy that it is the duty of every individual to contribute towards the society. It was started with a motive to understand that organizing various festivals is not only about fun and frolic, but also about spreading a message. Parvaah 2015 took up the cause of Women Safety and associated with the Mumbai Police, the Mumbai Taxi-men Union, Zicom among others to distribute safety kits for Women Safety and to create awareness. By associating Women’s Safety along with Symphony, it created awareness among the 5000+ students that attended Symphony, and thousands others in various colleges. In 2015, on-ground events like basketball matches and quiz matches for orphaned children during Symphony and Skream(Sports Festival of KJSCE) took place. Ranbir Kapoor, Sushant Singh Rajput, Rahul Ram, Devendra Fadanvis, Kapil Sharma, Sunil Grover, Paresh Ganatra, members of Sparsh, Coshish, Sapan Verma and The Local Train all actively supported the Parvaah initiative by signing the Parvaah pledge.
Sponsors and Past Associates
Symphony has always has had its back supported by major companies which have been a key part of its festivals. Some of the notable sponsors of symphony have been Pepsi, Colgate, Channel V, Channel Y, Huntindia.com, Parx Jeans, CavinKare, Tata Infotech, BWSX.com, DNA, Big 92.7 FM, Fever Adlabs, Fever 104, DSN, MTV, Singchana.com, Fresherworld.com, knowafest.com, Sony, Blackberry, Canara Bank, Rolling Stone, Essel World, Barista, Daikin, Cinemax, UTV Bindass, Sony Music, Musician’s Mall, Essar, Cloud9, Buckaroo, Mad Over Donuts, Wrangler, Sundaram, Hathway, Twenty19.com, Coke Studio, VH1 Supersonic, Yash Raj Films, Mumbai Mirror, Saavn, Furtados, Shankar Mahadevan Academy, Zee 24 Taas, Aquamagica and Himalaya.
Organizing and Cultural Committees
The Students’ Council of KJSCE backs Symphony entirely with the help of different Cultural committees in the college namely Gyrations, Rhapsody, Neotons and Mindbenders. The Core team is of 28 members headed by the General Secretary of the Students’ Council. Rest are allocated different sectors of fest to overlook. Each one of them coordinates with each other in various fields like Marketing, Public Relations, Logistics, Creatives and every other aspect of the Festival. The Students’ Council is accompanied by the Organising Committee and Volunteers to coordinate and execute the fest smoothly. Cultural Committees have their own importance in the fest, managing the various Cultural events to keep the fest up to the mark. The Students' Council of the college organizes Symphony which was started in 1991 as a small intra-campus festival but has now grown to be one which is backed by a solid organization and fun.
See also
- KJSCE Abhiyantriki
- KJSCE Skream
- K. J. Somaiya College of Engineering
- Somaiya Vidyavihar
- University of Mumbai
- Karamshi Jethabhai Somaiya