Songs for the season

A major highlight of any festival is music. And nobody can imagine Christmas without traditional carol singing and choir performances.

The month-long choir performances, which started from November end and soar to higher octaves as the season arrives add only largesse and majesty to Christmas. While a few choirs have finished their performances, many more will reign in the spirit of Christmas.

Bangalore Conservatory Choir is rigorously practising for their performance on December 25, 6 pm, at Phoenix Mall. Hoping to take the City back to the medieval ages, they are performing famous carols like ‘A Little Drummer Boy’, ‘Carol of The Bells’ and the popular song ‘Let It Go’.

Don, one of the conductors of the choir, says, “The practice is going on intensely and we are looking forward to a full house there. We are in the process of arranging our songs better. We have also added a few dance tunes to this concert, hoping that people in Bengaluru will dance to the music.”

The Sacred Heart Church Choir will perform on December 24, 6 pm onwards. Led by Deepak Nazarus, they will be singing a host of traditional and contemporary songs to celebrate the season.

 The St. Mark’s Cathedral has a number of services lined up this week and the choir will be part of them. They reigned in the Christmas spirit at the start of the season, which is the last Sunday of November. Anjana, the convenor of the programme committee says, “The programme is titled, ‘Festival of Peace’ and is called as ‘Advent’.

Over 15 choirs; such as Christ University Choir, St. Joseph’s Arts and Science Choir and St. Andrew’s Church Choir participated in the festival.”

The Cathedral also held an ‘English Cantata’ programme recently, where they sang ‘Christ is the beginning of Christmas’ and celebrated the evening with a campfire dinner and a majestic display of fireworks up in the air. “The theme for the festival was ‘Hope’ and it was held as a mark of respect to the flood havoc in Chennai.”

‘Magnificat’, a landmark Christmas concert organised every year by Christ University entered its tenth year of life recently. About 30 choirs participated in the event and ushered in the spirit of Christmas through classical pieces, contemporary songs, acappella and jazz tunes.

Jason Kishander, the choir conductor says, “The Christ University Choir performed classical pieces from Handel’s Messiah, ‘Have you felt a merry christmas?’ and other songs. We are currently preparing for an annual event in college and also wish to go to an old-age home and spend time there during Christmas.”

Nestin, a member of a popular choir group Glorious, recently finished a power-packed performance, ‘Once Upon A Christmas’. Magical songs interspersed with personal narratives of the members were the perfect beginning for the Christmas week!

However, despite multiple choir groups performing at different venues, every chorale conductor wishes to echo the same, underlying message of unity and peace through their music.