Thank God it’s Thursday!
I remember listening to the Abba with my older cousins in their home in Bombay. We would be watching the sea from the balcony, taking in the fishy smell that wafted through the air. I would have been a little older than three years then, but my memory of associating ‘Voulez Vous’ and ‘Chiquitita’ was always with that balcony-in-the-Bombay-house!
I grew up with a lot of music playing at home all the time. Singing along with my cousins, uncles and aunts was a given during all our holidays. It was over a summer that I made the serendipitous discovery of being able to sing in ‘seconds’ – the song was ‘The Sounds of Silence’ by Simon & Garfunkel! That joy of harmonizing has stayed with me ever since!
The highlight of college life was being a part of a quartet that took part in various college festivals and competitions. We sang Jazz & Blues, Gospel, etc. We would record our voice parts (I sang the alto) on a tape recorder, circulate the cassette amongst the four of us and practice our parts! The alto part was usually always the vaguest, and I soon realized that the vaguer it was, the more I enjoyed singing it ☺
Fast forward to a year ago – at home in Madras where my children of the two legged and four legged kind needed me at home, especially the four legged ones! Prior to that, I was a Montessori teacher. With time in my hands, I began learning to play the piano! I had also been looking at joining a choir for quite some time. It was through my patient and wonderful piano teacher that I heard of the Madras Guild of Performing Arts. I got in touch with Mary aunty from the MGPA and was asked to come watch the choir perform at the Kirk, for the Sounds of the Season concert, in November 2023. From the moment I heard them, I knew that I had to join – the shortz (the children’s choir name!) as well as the adult choir had put up a fabulous show!
A Thursday in January 2024 – with some amount of trepidation and excitement, I entered the SACCE hall, only to be greeted by a bunch of friendly faces and warm handshakes. However, my excitement was short lived when I realized that the choir members were able to sing from the sheet music! They were belting it out like they knew the songs from before! Even though I could read music at a basic level, I wasn’t prepared for this level of proficiency! I realized with time that I had to lean onto my auditory senses to learn the music.
Folks of the choir were extremely helpful in easing us newcomers into the system! Soon, we learnt the ropes, made friends and began to find our comfortable space! It was wonderful to see the same passion of music shared amongst everyone in the choir; across age groups and professions. I was pleasantly surprised that all members of the choir took the effort to try and learn their music beforehand and arrive on time every Thursday! Each voice part would also try and meet on other days, in case extra practice was needed.
A shoutout to Atul, our choir director, conductor and pianist/pipe organist who works tirelessly towards upping the standards of the choir. What stands out in this young musician is his level of professionalism and his penchant for all the gorgeous music that he picks out for concerts!
Gaither Concert, April 2024 – we spent three months preparing for the Gaither concert. I learnt these were songs composed and sung by an American Southern Gospel group since the 1980s. The preparation for the concert (like all other concerts) was intense! People sang in smaller groups, apart from some solo singing. We also practiced as a choir for songs such as, ‘Worthy is the Lamb’ and ‘Hallelujah’. A few of us from the alto group sang the song, ‘He Touched Me’, the arrangement for which was done by our fellow alto friend, Nivedha. The Gaither concert was held at the Kirk, St Andrew’s, Egmore. It was my first experience with the MGPA and I absolutely enjoyed being a part of it!
Since Gaither, I am now five concerts old and believe me when I tell you that the excitement and joy in the preparation of all of them has remained the same, whether it was the huge production for the Haydn concert, or the concert that we put up at the Kodaikanal International School, or the Sounds of the Season that ushered in the Christmas spirit! Every Thursday, I look forward to the music that awaits us. And it is every Thursday that the last song rehearsed, is stuck in my head, playing like a broken record for a few days, on repeat, until the reality of learning my alto part before the coming Thursday hits me…
