A flood of old memories

Glorious turned 25 years and that in itself is a celebration of sorts. The choir managed to rope in people who have been singing with them for the last 25 odd years.

Their Christmas concert titled ‘Make his praise Glorious’ held in the City recently brought together a lot of old faces and attracted some new ones
as well.

The evening was a neatly packaged collection of the best-loved songs from over the years, divided into a nostalgic cantata in the first half and plenty of
foot-tapping numbers in the second half of the concert.

The silver-jubilee stage had 100 members from different generations of the choir joined by 100 singers fromthe Glorious Children’s Choir.

That the choir has been practising long and hard was evident in its flawless
performance.

Even the little ones in the choir were disciplined and enthusiastic.  

Among the pieces that were prominent during the two-hour performance
were the black gospel arrangements such as ‘I Just Wanna Be Ready’ by Priya Mendens, ‘Virtuoso’ by Joshua Prabhakar, the poignant ‘Little Yeshua’ by Daniel Kartik and the choir’s anthem ‘Make His Praise Glorious’.

Michelle Khiangte’s spectacular rendition of ‘Light of a Million Mornings’ left the audience spellbound.

Such was the power in her voice. The audience was taken to a time of reflection when Sabitha Jonas, another soloist sang ‘Christmas Makes Me Cry’, a song that spoke of the bittersweet play of memories and realism of people who spend the festive season alone.

Joel Jacob and Joby Kurien unveiled the connect between heaven and humanity in
the tenor duet titled ‘Is There Any Wonder’.

While singer Persis Thomas threw good cheer into the holiday week with her ‘Oh Happy Day’, another singer Jeremiah Joseph took the crowd to a Christmas in Hawaii with his big bass voice.

Director of the choir, Reji Chandy almost had the listeners convinced that Malayalam was the language spoken in heaven and even persuaded them to join in the vernacular
medley.

Herbert Paul, a senior member of the choir, had the audience in splits with his hilarious version of ‘The Little Drummer Boy’.

Soloist Kaavya Chandy’s song ‘The Voice of a Saviour’ reflected the many challenges faced by young Indians.

Her brother Karun Chandy wrapped up the first half of the concert with his
dynamic version of the song ‘Wonderful News’.

The audience loved every bit of the performance.

Rohith Jacob, a musician said, “I’ve been a regular to all Glorious concerts and it was a sheer delight to listen to some old favourites which the choir is popular.”

 Sushama, a member of the audience, summed up, “The choir has instilled in all of us the spirit of Christmas and all their songs gave us hope to look forward to a new
beginning.”