Meagan Pandian Weaving Hands

Described as India's first and currently only pedal harp player, Mumbai's Meagan (Meagan Chrines Alphonso) Pandian began playing the keyboard in church and also sang in the children's choir.

As a 7-year-old, Meagan had no idea that people still played the harp until she watched Greg Buchanan play Amazing Grace.

The Aldona-born Goan, who also plays the piano, violin, and viola, has worked alongside some really great musicians like A.R. Rahman, Pritam, Shankar Mahadevan, Stephen Devassy, and Sameera Koppikar, with her first harp performances being part of the Arijit Singh symphony concert series where she performed all over India and abroad. She has also performed with the Bombay Chamber Orchestra, the South Asian Symphony, and the Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic from the Czech Republic. In August, she performed at the Museum of Christian Art in Old Goa and at the Independence Day Harp Concert at Alliance Française in Panaji. Besides numerous corporate events and private shows, Meagan recently performed at the Sa Re Ga Ma Pa 2023 with Ranita Banerjee. She recently completed a four-city, six-concert tour launching the latest ESUV for Mercedes Benz playing alongside cellist Lavine Da Costa.

VERUS FERREIRA spoke with Meagan to know more about the harp and her musical journey.

Tell us something about your growing-up days and how you got into playing the harp.

I once saw Greg Buchanan play Amazing Grace on the harp on the Billy Graham crusade on TV as a 7-year-old. In those moments, my feet didn't touch the floor. The memory of his performance stayed with me. Since it is not possible to get a harp or even a harp string here in any music store, far from learning the instrument, I never even conceived of myself as being able to play the instrument.