IT was a defining moment for the 30-odd choristers of the Madras Musical Association from Chennai who went to Rome to sing for the 25th anniversary of the International Church Music Festival. The anniversary festival was held last June in Rome and lasted a week. The choir of the MMA, Madras Musical Association, which participated in the three last festivals, was also invited this year.
During a moving invocation service held in the apse of San Paolo, Canon Adrian Daffern helped the 450 choristers from the USA, UK, Holland, Switzerland, Germany, Canada, Australia, Ukraine and Kenya, to put the music and performance in perspective.
Singing for the Pope
During the live weekly Papal audience in St. Peter’s Square, the choristers got up to sing for the Pope Benedict while waving mini Indian flags.
During the International Nite, the Gatt quintet, led by Kalyan Subramanyam, began with “Joshua fit the battle” and went on to sing Bharathiar’s Senthamizh Naadenum Bothinilae. The 30-strong MMA choir performed under the baton of Augustine Paul an arrangement by Sir David Willcocks of Lord of the Dance. A Tamil keerthanai, Anandamae Jaya Jaya sung to an accompaniment of guitars, shakers and the sruthi box. It was a mind-boggling experience to perform the next day in the afternoon mini concert at the historic Pantheon. The acoustics and the ambience by itself were worth the trip.
The Gala concert was held in St. Paul Outside the Walls where the choir sang under the renowned Paul Leddington Wright and Sir David. The curtain came down on the famous “Hallelujah Chorus” with the packed to capacity church. The audience stood in silence bathed in the music. For the chennaiites, especially for 14- year-old Roshni Sharon Rajan, the youngest soprano in the MMA choir, to sing in huge Basilicas with a massed choir, a full orchestra and a maestro conducting was truly an awesome experience.
expresso@epmltd.com
