NIKESH HARRINARAIN

Originally hailing from South Africa, Nikesh Harrinarain learned to play the harmonium by ear at the age of six. His initial exposure to music came mostly from Bollywood films and from attending regular Sunday service at the local Hindu temples. In high school, he discovered classical music and began learning about the great composers. Since then, he has been hooked and fascinated by the art form.

 

 At age sixteen, Nikesh started to learn the violin with Dr. Zillah Holdcroft who initially did not want to accept him as a violin student due to his age. With persuasion from his father, Dr. Holdcroft agreed to give Nikesh a chance of at least one year of lessons. More than equal to the task, Nikesh picked up the basics of violin playing very quickly. So quickly, that at the beginning of his third year of violin lessons, he started to learn how to play the first movement of the Mendelssohn E Minor violin concerto. 

 

After finishing high school, Nikesh was originally planning to emulate his music hero and favourite conductor, Zubin Mehta, by going to Vienna; Austria to study orchestra conducting. Unfortunately, he was dissuaded from following that career path by both Dr. Holdcroft and his father. As a result, Nikesh ending up studying accounting which he passed ‘summa cum laude’ and become a chartered accountant instead. However, Nikesh was always encouraged to keep playing music as a hobby.

 

As a violinist, Nikesh has played in the KwaZulu-Natal Youth Orchestra in South Africa and also played in the Bermuda Philharmonic Orchestra. He had his own string quartet as a student which played at numerous wedding and corporate functions and made a lot of money from the venture.

 

At age thirty-four, he taught himself how to play the piano and guitar which he picked up very quickly. During the Covid quarantine, as a response to a challenge from his father, Nikesh started to compose his own original music. The quarantine period was very productive. It yielded twenty-six pieces ranging from solo instrumentals to full-blown orchestral masterpieces. Nikesh has had no formal lessons in composing.

 

The style of Nikesh’s music can best be described as “80’s & 90’s Bollywood film music meets 80’s & 90’s English pop music meets Western Classical music.” These were the three favourite genres that had the biggest influence on his compositions. Nikesh posts his demo-recordings of his original compositions on YouTube. His YouTube channel is called : ‘ @TheComposingAccountant ’ .

 

Outside of music, Nikesh runs his own successful accounting business in Calgary where he works with numerous arts organizations, film production companies and orchestral musician clients.