Manoké apps tune up a community-led music learning space in Chennai

As lessons move online, 180-year-old Musée Musical, Chennai, turns to learning app Manoké to connect musicians, teachers and students

For nearly 180 years, Chennai’s famed Musée Musical has celebrated a near-perfect score. The story of the music brand weaves into its plot an English pianist, a French businessman and an Indian accountant who took a Portuguese firm — Misquith & Co, founded in 1842 — and made it a place where many Indians had their first tryst with music; some of them went on to become legends. The firm that resides on Anna Salai in a red-tiled building with green awnings and a signage that reads ‘music saloons, pianos and organs’, has since 1901 represented Trinity College, London, prepared nearly 20,000 students for the College’s exams, and serviced and sold musical instruments. Helmed by the Das brothers — Kishore and Sachin — Musée Musical has now jumped on to the app bandwagon to accelerate learning and develop technical skills. Manoké, which means ‘play along’ in Japanese, has been developed by US edu-tech company Topxight Labs.