Founder of Creative India Education Fund Lubomir Jabbanda (centre) with Gaurav and their students
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Bengaluru’s Lubomir Jabbanda has had a circuitous route into setting up Creative India Education Fund (CIEF), a non-profit which aims at providing music, dance, sports and arts education to underserved youth in the city and state.

It was when his long-gestated dreams of becoming an in-demand artiste came up against the uncertainties of the pandemic-enforced lockdowns that Lubomir — who makes music under the moniker Beat Hierarchy — turned to teaching basic music-making skills to school children in South India.

After the initial CSR outing in 2023, the composer-producer, guitarist and rapper saw the potential in setting up a non-profit organisation, and the Creative India Education Fund finally came into being in late 2024. Since then, Lubomir has had additional music teachers — multi-instrumentalist Gourav (who switched from a corporate job to music education), flautist Mushkan Rajani, dance artist Priya Mitra and his fellow trustee Swathy Ramanath — join him in his endeavour.

Lubomir Jabbanda with students of CIEF
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

After gaining considerable teaching experience at government schools across South India over the better part of a year, Lubomir channelled that know-how into CIEF. When he began approaching colleges and schools to offer free music education — instrument training, song-making and electronic music equipment training — few would say no, but it still took convincing.

“In some villages, a lot of principals don’t consider this an education,” he says.

Set up off Kanakapura Road, CIEF first began offering free music classes to the students of Shree Siddaganga Pre-University College nearby. It started with a class of 300 and then, they narrowed it down over the course of a few sessions to find 30 students who wanted to learn music and 18 dance groups. It culminated in an annual day for the college, organised by CIEF, in a throwback to Lubomir’s do-it-yourself ethos as Beat Hierarchy.

They found a music retail company to sponsor the sound setup, got the college to give them a stage and soon, everyone from the rappers and dancers to bands were on stage for a showcase gig. Talking about the ground work that went into it, Lubomir says, “We brought in ukuleles, cajons, bongos and a couple of keyboards, so it generated a lot of noise. But it helped people understand what instrument they were interested in learning with us.”

Lubomir Jabbanda with students of CIEF
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

Gourav adds that the annual day showcase was a great step ahead for students, who had come in knowing nothing and learned their craft through after-college classes. “It was interesting to see how they progressed from not knowing anything about the instrument to getting the confidence to perform on stage and to play coherently and together as a unit,” he says. Not only was there an ability to play, but also a confidence in being on stage as an artiste, the teacher adds.

After that initial push, CIEF has been working on their next move as the academic year got more exam-focused for a few students. Lubomir says they plan to extend their music classes to the differently-abled and visually-challenged. From being a full-time but frustrated independent artiste, to finding new meaning in making music more accessible across economic spectrums, there is work to be done as they hope to scale up, find more volunteer teachers and other schools to visit.

“Now that this infrastructure exists, I’m going full steam ahead,” Lubomir says.