BENGALURU: Italian composer Peter Tchaikovsky said there would be reason to go mad were it not for music and the musically inclined would furiously agree. Where busy schedules and work were pre-existing hindrances to organising a choir practice, the pandemic and the consequent lockdown handicapped several such efforts.
However, this did not stop choirs from singing, practising and evolving. The Bangalore Men and Capella, led by Jonas Olsson, were no different and their upcoming concert on September 11 will be a testament to it.
“We continued to sing throughout the pandemic,” says Olsson, conductor of The Bangalore Men and Capella. He further commented on having had Zoom rehearsals every week for an hour. “We had virtual concerts, recorded performances and there was never a break and I’m happy about that because it kept us all together, motivated and positive during the pandemic.”
Despite it being impossible to sing together and the difficulties of virtual practices, he states it was important that choir practices were held. “You could see everyone on video, hear them and that made a lot of difference,” says Olsson. With the restrictions relaxed, the Bangalore Men and Capella had their first live choir practice last November, followed by a concert in the Bangalore International Centre.
Beginning with the Gothenburg Cathedral Boys’ Choir at age 10, Olsson has been a member of choirs ever since. Having moved to Bengaluru in 2006 and now the head of the Volvo Group IT, he carried his passion through solo concerts and performances before he joined as a teacher with the Bangalore School of Music. He launched The Bangalore Men in 2016 and Capella Bangalore in 2019. Returning to the stage in 2021, they performed the Bangalore Rhapsody and choral covers of music by The Beatles, Queen, Lloyd-Webber and Simon and Garfunkel among others.
With the classics making a comeback in music today, as seen in Memories by Maroon 5 which has similarities with Pachelbel’s Canon in D Major, Because by The Beatles being influenced by Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata and Little Mix’s Little Me using Gabriel Fauré’s chord progression in Pavane, Olsson comments how this shows the “timelessness, sturdiness and longevity of the classics, forming a foundation for modern music.” “The music of today is easily learnt but it is easily forgotten. So I am really thinking about what the heritage of today’s music will be because they don’t leave a lasting impression,” he says.
The Bangalore Men and Capella will perform on September 11, at 6 pm at St Mark’s Cathedral, MG Road.
In store
Gabriel Fauré is known to be one of the last French composers from the Romantic period, taking forward impressionism in music. The choir will perform pieces by Fauré. The Requiem, Cantique de Jean Racine will be sung by the men and Messe Basse, sung by the ladies, accompanied by the organ. The choirs will be joined by pianist Rebecca Thomas Colaco, head of the piano department at the Bangalore School of Music, and soloists Anisha Chandy and Som Mendegar.