As many as 28 choirs reverberated with over 80 songs over two days (On August 18 and 19) at the 16th Glorious Festival of Harmony at the Ambedkar Bhavan, making it perhaps the biggest choir music festival not only in Bangalore, but in the country.
There were two kids choir groups. The Kiara Kids Chorale, conducted by Dr Wendy Dickson, is just year old and its members are aged from 5 to 14 years. The seniors presented "We go together" from Grease, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. The juniors entertained with Calypso Medley; Ab-a dab a dab and Swing in on a star. The East Parade Junior Choir, with 40 little kids, made their debut with "Any Dream will do” from “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat".
The Pilgrims, led by Anbudurai, have been together for 13 years and they were on a all India tour for a whole year. Their three songs for the festival were: Great is He that is in me, Centre of the Bark and Big Fish.
Harmonics and Harmonics Complicated, led by Joshua Chelliah came all the way from Chennai to perform at the concert on both the days.
Bangalore Youth Choir, started in 1984, is an All India Radio approved choral group who have performed all over India. Led by Dr Kaveri Sridhar they sang Akasha Keddu Nintha (Kannada), Hum apne Sadbhavonse (Hindi), Udhalitha Shatha Kirana (Marathi).
The South Asia Institute for Advanced Christian Studies (SAIACS) choir led by Zaseto Sasu and Arpit Waghmare had an offering of Let the Worshippers Arise, When Love broke through and My Tribute. Colleges
There were presentations from several colleges: Jyoti Nivas College, has a 16-year old choir and is Bangalore’s best known college choir. They performed a acapella arrangement called "That's When Life Is Worth Living" followed by a rendition of 1920's hit "Blue Moon" and " Joyful Joyful" from the movie Sister Act. St Joseph's College Of Arts and Science choir led by Alfred Santosh and Kuku Lohe came out with three acapellas: People get ready (by Human Nature), Kumbaya my Lord and Miracles (the sound track from Prince Of Egypt)
Mount Carmel College, a regular at the Festival of Harmony, led by Deirdre Fernandes Domnic performed Abba Medley arranged by David Lawrence, Ain't that Good News a Negro Spiritual by William Dawson and Gonna rise up singing (with Samanta Andrade and Preeti Saldanha as solists).
United Theological College with students from different parts of the world and led by Butesen presented I Want to be Ready (Jay Althouse), Naga Folk Song (James S Suw), Soon Ah will be done (William L Dawson).
The Christ College choir, managed and led by Sunil Chandy, has been winning competitions and performing at various venues. They have recently come out with an original album titled “Sound Curry.”
Their contributions for the festival were Hush, Magnify and Pink Panther (theme)
National Law School of India University, De Minimis have been participating in the Glorious festival for the past three years.
Christian Medical College, Vellore had the inspirational Mourning into dancing, Vellai Pookkal (A R Rahman), an You Are God Alone (Not A God). Schools Many schools have active choirs of a high standard. The Bishop Cotton Girls School Choir, led by Sunalini Ramesh, have participated in all the previous Harmony festivals.
St John's High School, led by Aiyenla Longkumar, are the winners of the first Glorious interschool music competition.
The 38-member Ryan International School Choir, Yelahanka, led by Simon Daniel; Ryan International School, Whitefield led by Joel Kingston; Vibgyor High School choir led by Joel Dave; Mallya Aditi International School, led by Evie Kelton all performed at the concert . Church choirs Many Bangalore Churches are the cradles of choir music. East Parade Church choir directed by Sujith Mathews Vengal and led at the concert by Jinson Geo Cherian; Marthoma Chorale led by Ruth Cherian; Indiranagar Methodist Church choir led by Indira Mahadevan made their presentations.
For sheer variety there was Chromatix, a band led by Sandeep Boniface.
Centre for Music Education Singers, director by Pastor Ken Henson, are dedicated to music seeking to worship God through song.
One cannot forget the performance by the hosts, Glorious. Their songs included Virtuoso, Right Now, My heart belongs to you (a duet by Reji Chandy and guest singer Pastor Ken Henson), Almighty and Burdens rolled away. The last song has dance and movement performance by Glorious Moves, a new offshoot of Glorious.
Glomen, is an another offshoot of Glorious. They did an old favourite Negro spiritual Dem Bones and a contemporary male voice arrangement of Rolled Away by Dottie Rambo.