When homes are lit up with colourful lights, the echo of carols and hymns fill the air, and children wait eagerly for gifts from Santa, we know it’s Christmas time. During this time of the year, choir groups put up acts, providing a platform for people — young and old — to showcase their talent.
“Choir songs are a blend of different voices harmonizing together. Unlike other music genres, these songs are based on melody,” says Reji Eapen Chandy, founder-director, Glorious Choir. Choirs have a long history of leading worship.
“A strong music curriculum in schools and colleges (which choir and cappella singing have become a part of) helps impart a better understanding of music. It helps kids bond,” says Sandra Oberoi, founder, Harmony Music School, Kormangala. Chandy chips in that the introduction of choir signing in schools and colleges around the city has provided an avenue and encouragement for budding talent.
Music helps one cultivate a lot of other skills, according to Oberio. “It blends different philosophies and emotional temperaments and serves as a universal language irrespective of race and culture,” she says, “It builds analytical skills and also serves as a stress buster as kids juggle between competition and expectation.”
Oberio continues, “Choir songs or Western classical music in general, can be sung in five different languages: Latin, German, Italian, French and English. An exposure to diverse languages exposes young ones to different cultures and lifestyles.” It even helps one register concepts in math and such, she says.
Chandy, who has spent 20 years teaching choir songs to the young and old, has seen that their diligent efforts has enabled a personality transformation. “More than thousand people have sung in Glorious Choir and I have seen the passion change lives,” he says, “When it comes to choir singing, it’s not the individual voice that counts, so one even learn to work as a team.”
Oberio will be performing at the New Life College on December 19, this year at a concert called ‘The true spirit of Christmas’. “Choir singing is not only restricted to the festive season,” she says. Chandy seconds that. While Christmas is definitely one of the busiest times for choir singers, he says that Glorious Choir is full of activity, three seasons in a year: “We’re busy during Easter season, Gloruious’ own Festival of Harmony (sometime in the middle of the year) and Christmas.”
Chandy says, “While we perform at Churches like St. Mark’s Cathedral during Easter, for Christmas we have our own concerts in auditoriums,” adding, “This year it will be held at Good Shepherd’s Auditorium.” “We commence our practice sessions, way ahead of the festive season. For this year’s Christmas celebrations, we started practice nearly three and a half months ago,” he adds, speaking of the effort groups like his put in.
“The pride that someone’s noticing you on stage boosts self-esteem,” says Oberio. To which, Salomi Jacob, a student of St Joseph’s College, who is part of Oberio’s choir group says, “I have been associated with this choir group for over a year, and it has enabled me to open up and express without inhibitions.”
“Singing in a group in front of an audience not only boosts your confidence, but there is also feel good factor,” says Shruthi Badri, a student of International School Bangalore, also a member of the choir group at Harmony.
