The Founder

Ebenezer

Founder, Cornucopia Music Academy

I grew up in a house full of music. My parents made sure of it — they placed my sisters and me under our teacher, Mr Rohan, to learn the violin, and that one decision shaped the rest of my life. The violin led me to the viola and the cello, and to singing in school and college choirs. Along the way I worked through my ABRSM grades, and I’ve now spent close to ten years teaching.

Why I started Cornucopia

Before Cornucopia, I taught at several music schools, and I kept meeting the same problem. Too many were built around numbers rather than learning — enrolling as many students as possible, keeping lessons easy and undemanding, and reassuring everyone that they were progressing when, honestly, they weren’t. The teachers, meanwhile, were rarely valued for the work real teaching takes.

I wanted to build the opposite of that.

Cornucopia exists to close the gap between genuine, high-quality music education and the qualified, dedicated teachers who can deliver it — and to keep that education honest. We measure real progress, not the comfortable illusion of it. We hold our faculty to a high standard, and we look after them, because good teaching is demanding and deserves respect.

We began with two students and online lessons alone. Today we teach close to a hundred students, across two centres in Bangalore and online around the world.

What I believe about teaching

A good teacher’s aim should be for the student to become a better musician than the teacher — and to play music that does some good in the world around them. That happens one student at a time. I teach patiently and personally, building each lesson around the individual in front of me rather than running everyone through the same mould.

Why we keep music therapists on our faculty

We are living through a serious mental-health crisis. In a world like this, a music therapist isn’t a luxury or an add-on — for the people who need one, it is a necessity. That conviction is why certified music therapists are part of our faculty, not a footnote to it.

Music is for everyone

The belief that started Cornucopia was a simple one: that a real music education should be within reach of people from every walk of life. It still drives everything we do.