CHENNAI: Chennai is a city that is known for the arts and as we enter Margazhi maadham, the sabhas are full and the city is all ready to witness a month-long celebration of classical dance and music. But, there’s another side to the city too — one that celebrates contemporary art and fusion experiments, opening up the city’s art audiences to different genres of performance, going beyond the city’s obsession with all things classical.
Last month, this brand new performing arts series — O2 Rendezvous with Art — by Alchemy Arts & Education debuted in the city with a live musical evening featuring Carnatic composer and vocalist Amirt K Narayan. The performance wowed audiences with the artiste’s contemporary take on classical music, and less than a month later, the series now presents the very popular Chennai Children’s Choir, live in concert, this weekend.
“For the upcoming event, the Chennai Children’s Choir will be performing 10 songs in different languages composed and written by poets from across India. The idea of choosing this list of songs for this particular performance is to bring in and celebrate the differences of the beautiful musical cultures from different parts of our country,” explains Manjula Ponnapalli, co-director of the Chennai Children’s Choir.
The Chennai Children’s Choir is an initiative of NalandaWay Foundation and was started in the year 2015. The intention was to take music to the lives, homes and hearts of thousands of children from underprivileged backgrounds — to children who don’t have easy access to learning an art form. Run by Manjula Ponnapalli and Vedanth Bharadwaj, the co-directors, the choir focusses on helping children connect to the music that they’re learning through value based methodologies which inculcate messages of humanity and unity.
“Currently, the choir has 25 children, but the number is not constant. Every two years, or so, we have new children who join the choir. We’ve performed in many places, including Washington DC in 2018 as a part of the Serenade Choral Festival at Kennedy Centre and we have given 50 performances till date,” adds Manjula.
The choir has performed with TM Krishna and Bombay Jayashri, in the past, and is known for their popular renditions of Vaishnav Janato, Hum Ko Man Ki Shakti Dena, O Paalanhaare and Shyamale Meenakshi, videos of which are also streaming on YouTube.
“One of the core pillars of the thought process at O2 Rendezvous with Art is — art for all and appreciation of art for all. In this context, it is really interesting to tie up with NalandaWay Foundation to present the Chennai Children’s Choir, who have come a long way and have done some wonderful work. We are so happy to be hosting them this weekend, on November 27 at 6 pm at Alchemy Black Box Studio,” enthuses Vijay Viswanathan, founder of Alchemy Arts & Education Foundation and Alchemy Black Box Studio.
Alchemy Black Box Studio is a brand new performance space in Chennai that offers the city’s first ‘black box experience.’ The initiative was started with an objective of creating an intimate and liberating performance space, allowing the audience and artiste to connect, thereby enhancing the experience for both.