Dalal’s diverse dimensions

"I don’t think you should do anything full-time, otherwise you become one-dimensional,” believes London based Phiroz Dalal, a chartered engineer and manager by profession who is equally devoted to his second career as a singer and music conductor.
Currently engaged in managing the closure of Heathrow’s Terminal 1, he has also played a substantial role in the new 118 km Crossrail project that will go across two giant tunnels and eight new stations to facilitate faster travel within London. The project that should be completed by 2019 is expected to cost nearly £ 15 billion (Rs 1,50,000 crores), mentioned Dalal who was appointed design manager for Laing O’Rourke, the 166-year-old international engineering enterprise. When Parsiana interviewed him in October 2013 during our visit to London to cover "The Everlasting Flame” exhibition and the launch of the Zoroastrian All Party Parliamentary Group, he was focussing on the Liverpool Street sector of the Crossrail that required the construction of 16 new platforms and four underground lines. "My function is to manage the design of this new station… a major engineering feat” that will require coordination among the architectural, mechanical, structural and electrical engineering teams, explained Dalal. The construction aspect was to be handled by a colleague.

Prior to this assignment, for 11 months he served as design manager for the new London Gateway Port in Essex that was conceptualized with six deep water berths and the capacity to handle ultra large container vessels with its automated container handling facility and integrated logistics park. His team was required to manage design contracts with 80 core designers and 20 specialist companies. His brief involved "identifying and exploiting opportunities for increasing efficiency and providing all the information required for the construction, operation and future maintenance of the port.”
In the designing of the London Olympic Park too Dalal had played a role as project manager from 2008-2012 when he was entrusted with the northern half of the Olympic Park’s structures, bridges, highways and off Park roads and junctions. "I delivered £ 100 million (Rs 1,000 crores) worth of infrastructure on this high profile and rapidly developing program,” reported Dalal on his LinkedIn profile. Referring to this "high profile, global project,” in the interview with Parsiana Dalal emphasized on the "interdependency…targets…deadlines…immense pressure to deliver. If you slipped, somebody else would be on your seat in the morning.” The scale of the build, the pace, made it "fun yet exciting. Although it was London based, it became a global project… for it attracts the best and brightest not just in the country but in the world. We were working with teams who had delivered the Sydney, Atlanta and other world games…”
Having graduated in civil engineering from King’s College, University of London, in 1988, in the subsequent 25 years Dalal has contributed to the refurbishment of the Westminster Bridge and the Thames Gateway Transits as also many other bridges in Berkshire and Buckingham. "The Westminster Bridge refurbishment is notable for its floating working platforms to ensure zero disruption to London’s traffic, and a total ban on generators, making it a zero emission project,” points out Dalal who was presented to the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh at the time of her golden jubilee in 2003.
For the Queen’s diamond jubilee performance at St Matthews Church in Ealing, Dalal as conductor and musical director of St Matthews Concert Choir and Orchestra had recreated the music that accompanied her coronation. At the time of the golden jubilee, the then conductor "put me in charge of the concert. He played the organ and I conducted.” Since then Dalal has been music director for this group of around 50 musicians.
For the members of St Matthews Concert Choir and Orchestra "music is a passion…a hobby,” appreciates Dalal who did his MA in Choral Education from Roehampton University, two decades after earning his engineering degree. "I had to stay up late to study,” recalls Dalal who as a singer for the last eight years with the BBC Symphony Chorus and a pianist was familiar with music "but I wanted to understand the theory behind it.” As a conductor he found it fascinating to study "how you can change the sound of the group by what you do on the podium. It is not just about keeping time…” he reveals. "I can’t play the string instruments but I can understand what I would like.” Whether it is Bach, Haydn, Mozart, he is familiar with early English church music that is "pretty much standard for all masses.”
Lending his tenor voice to the 220-member BBC Symphony Chorus, Dalal makes time for their rehearsals too. "Every two or three years the singers have to go through a re-audition… for revalidation.” He refers to their overseas trips to Paris, Brussels, Istanbul when they participated in International Music Festivals and enjoyed the "prestige and acclaim.”
Singing for his school choir since he was 13 and for the church choir a couple of years later, Dalal’s stage confidence has grown from the time he was 11 or 12 putting up pantomimes for local groups. At the University, he played the piano to earn money.
Over the years Dalal has observed many Parsis like his enthusiastic parents Roshan and Rusi, come for the concerts but so far he has not sung or played with any members of his community. Zoroastrianism, to him, signifies "understanding values and living values. Some people practice it in an overt way and some in a covert way.” There are "a lot of common threads” between Zoroastrianism and other religious faiths. "Understanding them, helps us get along better,” believes Dalal who advocates "looking for similarities to bond better with neighbors.” The Christian ‘confession’ of sins through thought, word or deed, points out Dalal, is much akin to the Zoroastrian stress on smiting evil and reinforcing the good. Besides music, his "love for cycling,” 20-25 miles a day, also helps Dalal to unwind.
His wife Alison "who is a very good singer, sings in my choir.” Their elder son Zubin, aged 18, plays the clarinet while the younger one Xarius, who is 15, has earned a music scholarship to a top private boarding school, Christ’s Hospital School in South England. Viewing him as "an exceptional little musician,” the father says "I expect great things from him… Music comes to him naturally, but you have to persevere, experiment. You may get things wrong or get things right. What makes a good musician is having the patience, desire, understanding and willingness to improve.” Listening to differences "in what you are doing and what others are doing” is also a sure way to better one’s technique.
Dalal is hopeful that music can be used to promote global peace.