The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Chennai choir to sing in England

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jun 19, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Chennai choir to sing in England

R. Sujatha

To attend international church music fest

CHENNAI: The Madras Musical Association (MMA) choir will participate in the annual International Church Music Festival this weekend at Chester in England.

This is the third time that the choir is participating in the festival. Sir David Wilcox will conduct the choir and accompanist Stephen Neilson and Paul Leddington Wright will be part of the concerts at Chester Cathedral.

The 25-member choir will represent India at the 23-year-old festival held alternately in England and Switzerland, will sing Christian Tamil hymns. One of them has been set to the Carnatic style of music. The hymns are poetry in Tamil from the early 19th century.

The 107-year-old association is proud to have the 85-year-old conductor, Sir David Wilcox, conduct the concert at the church. "This is the only time Sir David, a professional, will conduct us amateurs," says Ravi Santosham, president of the association and member of the planning committee of the festival.

The challenge, according to the choristers, is to sing along with other choirs from across the world. "We will have to sing with other choirs. They [festival organisers] have sent us the music and we have to practise here," says Samuel Grubb, who has conducted the MMA choir for 16 years. Choirs from the eight participating countries will sing songs from their country.

The Indian choir will also present a collection of Indian Christian folk songs written and set to tune by Tamil poets, says Augustine Paul, associate music director of the association. A kirthanai `Varavendum enatharase... ' has been set to `mohana ragam' in `adi talam'.

"Since we are not allowed to take any musical instruments with us, we have sought special permission to play Indian percussion instruments on track," says Dr. Santosham.

On the international night of hymns, to be held on June 18, the Indian choir will present Psalm 23 in Tamil. The programme is to be filmed by BBC television.

Sir David will conduct about 365 choristers from the United States, Europe, Slovakia, Ukraine and Asia (including the choir from Chennai) in the gala concert to be held on Saturday.

The choristers will perform pieces from Mozart, Hubert Parry, Paul Leddington Wright and Schubert's Mass in G major.

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