One fixture of Delhi’s Christmas calendar has always been the Christmas concert by the Shillong Chamber Choir (SCC). The Choir, founded in 2001 by Neil Nongkynrih, known affectionately by all as ‘Uncle Neil’, is a multi-genre choir which has performed all across the country and the world, and with a litany of achievement including performing for the Obamas’ state visit to Indian, winning the reality TV show India’s Got Talent in 2010, and performing for a number of important national functions.
And this is the first year they won’t be performing in Delhi, marking a pause in one of the city’s most beloved musical traditions.
William Basaiawmoit, lead singer of the choir, speaking about the impact the COVID-19 pandemic had on the band says, “We’ve had to sacrifice, at least, 17 to 18 concerts. And that is a huge blow, as in terms of the digital media space we don’t really focus our attention there. We are still very old fashioned. For us, it’s about live concerts and we are renowned for our live acts. But we’ve had to say no to that. And we still had to say no to two concerts coming up next year as well, because of, like I said, the uncertainty that we don’t know about the vaccine.”
Noting that necessity is the mother of invention, Basaiawmoit, adds, “We’ve had to reinvent ourselves digitally. So, one good thing is that we have been able to spend time together, to acquire and create new things. And one of them is a Christmas album, which was in a way a response to the non-viability of travelling to Delhi for the annual concert. And also it’s a celebration of the 10 years of winning India’s Got Talent. If we didn’t do it this year then there’ll be the 11th year, which just didn’t really sound as nice. So we thought that this would be the best time to release an album and also because of the fact that we’re all together so we had the opportunity. Otherwise, during the season, we’d be absolutely busy traveling the world with concepts” The album, called Come Home Christmas, is perhaps the first of its kind of Christmas album, given that it’s sung in languages like Ancient Aramaic, Hebrew, and the other Semitic languages spoken in the time and place of Jesus Christ’s birth.
“So, actually, the story goes like this. I had to prepare the whole album and I work in a very systematic way, especially because I don’t come from western classical background, where we write down every single note and everything. One day, at 6:30 am, and I pray a lot as part of my daily routine, and I just guess it came as a gift. It came like a revelation,” says Uncle Neil, speaking of what led him down this path of months of research and telephonic consultations with professors of ancient languages and experts from the BBC and other resources.
“I don’t know how many, but especially the last 100 years or so, we have had nothing but Western influence, whether it be fast food, movies, and indeed this whole celebration, which is of course Christianised. Whether it’s songs like I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus or Jingle Bells, it’s all very westernised, and has nothing to do with the message of Christmas,” says Uncle Neil, pointing out, “The problem is us, even Indians or even Christians who are non-Western.
So what I did was I used the music that I had, but went back to the root languages to spread the actual message, interspersed with English and Hindi.” The album, which was released on streaming services on December 18, has eight songs. The Christmas concert set to stream on feelitlive.co.in will be at 8:30pm on December 22 and feature more. All proceeds will go to The Genesis Foundation.