JG College of Performing Arts BPA Review By Sushmita Singh

I enrolled in JG College of Performing Arts as it is one of the top performing arts colleges in Ahmedabad. It resides in the 'JG Group of Colleges' section and is located on the drive-in road near the gurukul area in Ahmedabad. I have earned my bachelor's degree from here and am currently pursuing a master's degree in the same. Talking of college, there are 6 to 7 classes divided on the basis of arts. There are mostly Indian classical arts available here. There is a kathak section, bharatnatyam section, hindustani vocal music section, carnatic vocal section, tabla, sitar section, drama section and few more similar arts. There is no entrance exam or criteria to get admission here. All you need to have is immense passion and love for arts. I enrolled in the course even after being from a commerce background. So this means, even if you took science or commerce in school, you can enroll for this degree.

I learnt hindustani vocal music here and I must say all the teachers are highly qualified and experienced. They have in-depth knowledge of music and they have helped me craft my skill beautifully. The bachelor's degree is of 3 years. Over the span of 3 years, I learnt more than 30 ragas with details and understood music more deeply. On the other hand, we were also taught some related subjects like western music, aesthetics, ghazals etc. There are 3 semesters held every year and one final Gujarat University exam where an outsider (of performing arts field) comes to conduct the exam. The outsider is generally a faculty of M.S. University which is in Vadodara and one of the top institute in Gujarat.

There are four main teachers in my degree. Vijay Sir, Rucha mam, Kshiti mam and Sadhna mam. All these teachers have more than 10 years of musical experience and their skill is amazing. Vijay sir teaches ragas for the practical and 'history of music' subject for the theory. Whereas, Rucha mam teaches ragas and 'principles of music subject' for the theory. There are teachers for other subjects as well such as Diana mam for aesthetics and Utpala mam for Interdependence of Arts subject. These subjects are taken according to the year of the degree. Apart from that, all the teachers are very kind, encouraging and helpful as well. I remember I lost faith in myself a lot of times, but they encouraged me to believe and keep moving which really helped me a lot.

If you excel in all the subjects and have great passion then you may get the music teacher job here itself and obviously in every other school in the city, state as well as the country. I don't know much about placements but I have seen excellent people from here getting placements at good places in the city.

There is no hostel available as far as I know. But there are several well maintained PGs available nearby. Many of my friends live there and there haven't been any issue regarding that.

The college is situated on the 7th floor of the Asia Campus. It has a well maintained and beautiful infrastructure. The vibe is really magical and peaceful here. Every wall is beautifully painted and there is a wonderful worshipping section as well. Every day, we do the aarti first and then go into our respective classes to learn. This makes the environment really positive and lively. There is a hall, some classes, office and principal cabin as well. The library linked to this college is located on the 6th floor. You can always use lift or stairs as per your convenience.

I am being very honest while I say this, I loved all of my time spent here. All the learning, positive, understanding and encouraging attitude of teachers, educational trips etc. makes it totally worth it to learn from here. Even if you are a beginner in any field of art, you are taught from the basics to the advanced level. There are many side events as well, like having good artists and teachers residing in the city being called upon and humbly asked to interact with the students while teaching. Everyone in the campus is highly cooperative and helpful.