Perfect note: Mumbai’s choirs bring in the season with music, carols and performances

It's been a busy December for Bosco Rodrigues and his choir, Faith & Harmony. They started with a performance at St Andrew's Auditorium, followed by another at the Willingdon Catholic Gymkhana and finally with a Carol night at St Don Bosco's shrine in Matunga on December 18. Sion-based Rodrigues had started working on the songs to include for this year's Christmas celebration at the start of September, quite late from his usual schedule. He explains, "I start selecting the hymns in January as soon as the season is over so that I really know what I want for the following season."

This year particularly proved to be difficult because the Mumbaikar had many challenges due to the Covid-19 pandemic including whether the choir would even be able to sing since many people had moved away. "We had a very small number of people so then towards the end we made announcements at various parishes and had people join us," adds the city-based conductor, who is also a radio jockey. Elsewhere in the city, even Dylan D'souza is a choir conductor with two city-based choirs. With the Salvation Singers since 1997, they have recently performed at venues across the city; and the St. Joseph's Choral Society have recently concluded their ritual festive singing last weekend at their parish, Our Lady of Salvation Church in Dadar. It turned out to be a refreshing performance for the choir that started practice for it as early as October.

Mumbai has a rich history with its choirs and churches that go back over 100 years. They are active throughout the year practicing so that they can put on the perfect performance for the festive season and particularly Christmas. These choirs perform at the various churches, gymkhanas and performance spaces in the city and come together to practice amid their busy schedules. They include people who have been associated with them for over 25 years, even as new entrants and changes take place over the years. Rodrigues and D'souza are some among them who have been carrying on the tradition as conductors due to their love and passion for singing, as they guide singers to hit the perfect note.

Festive and Christmas season
D'souza and his choirs have been practicing regularly for the festive season. They meet after juggling their day jobs and personal lives and still manage to put on a fabulous show. City-based singer Giselle Pires, who is a part of the Salvation Singers and St Joseph's Choral Society, has been with the groups for the last 17 years. "I was a part of the children's choir, so I automatically joined these choirs after I finished school," says the 33-year-old, who is a parishioner of the Dadar church. After that, there was no looking back for Pires, as she has devotedly been a part of the two city choirs juggling work and life like many other singers in the city. "The Salvation Singers have been family. We sing, laugh and train together and everybody who is a part of the choir is passionate about singing and love being a part of it," she adds. Unlike the church choir, it is a secular choir, which she says has people who aren't part of the Catholic community. At the same time, it isn't limited to Dadar but has people who travel from Bandra, Santacruz and Goregaon too and when they come together, the whole mood changes once they start singing.

Dsouza, a city-based bank employee, says, "There is no substitute to rehearsals. So, it's rehearsals and more rehearsals but it is important to keep rehearsals fun and interesting. Must give a big shout to all the choristers and accompanists who in spite of college projects and exams, work, making Christmas sweets, house cleaning and so many other things during this season, make that extra effort to also be regular at rehearsals."

The Salvation Singers recently performed at the Festival of Festive Music at the NCPA and church choir have their performance on December 24. The fact that they are able to perform live is what D'souza admits is the most rewarding apart from the good memories of the last 25 years. Pre-Covid, they had performed at Willingdon Catholic Gymkhana and for Christmas Night at St Andrew's Auditorium too. As the tone has already been set for the festive season, the church choir, which was established in 1914, after singing for midnight mass will be singing at a city priest's diamond jubilee, to mark 60 years of his ordination.

The Faith & Harmony choir had a small number of people so towards the end they had to make announcements at various parishes for people to join them for this season. Photo: Bosco Rodrigues

Soaking in the Christmas spirit
On the other hand, Rodrigues says his 30-member choir has worked long and hard and will be spending Christmas with their families, and by performing in their own church choirs in Kurla, Sion, Malad and Mira Road too. The 10-year-old choir with decades of experience between themselves had been practicing every Sunday till now for two hours, and with changes in the roster, had to also deal with the logistics that come with putting on the performances. "It was difficult to get a pianist for this season because my regular pianist had gone abroad for further studies and we didn't have one till September end." Playing the piano and guitar himself, the city-based choir conductor stepped in till they found a replacement as he admits it is difficult to conduct different sections of the choir and play at the same time.

However, the challenges aren't only musical as Rodrigues says since there are so many changes over the years, getting other aspects right is also important. "Apart from the costumes, you have to think of the costumes - what are the boys going to wear, what are the girls going to wear. You can't have something that has been repeated a couple of years ago. Right from going to Crawford market to choose the material with senior choir members and pick up the fabric that would suit the season, it's been hectic but all worth it every time they have taken the stage to sing this year.

Carrying on a legacy
Elsewhere in Girgaum, Kevin D'Souza is carrying on a legacy through the 25-30-member secular choir Singspirators. It was started in 2000 by his father-in-law Savio Medeira, who was at the time the conductor for to Dabul's St Francis Xavier Church choir. "At the time, they asked him if they could put a choir together to perform at Catholic Gymkhana, since there were a lot of choirs coming to perform there," he explains, about the 22-year-old choir. Being musically inclined and married into the same family, he knew classical, semi-classical and the modern genres and when Medeira suddenly passed away in 2015, a week before a performance to raise money for the church. With big shoes to fill, D'souza said it is quite a big task especially because he had to put together the whole choir, while also juggling with his teaching job and running his own business.

Like Rodrigues, even D'souza and his choir had a shortage of voices by the time it was October-November because of the Covid-19 pandemic as people weren't there anymore to be a part of the choir that would perform at A Festival of Festive Music at the NCPA, where the city's choirs congregate every year. Amid practicing for the Church's 150th anniversary, D'souza and the choir practiced through WhatsApp and practiced every day a week before, it all turned out well in the end.

Luckily for the 52-year-old, his knowledge of computers and music helped him improvise with the changing times as technology also plays a very instrumental role today. Now that the performance season is over, D'Souza is going to be in Goa this year for a performance with past members of Singspirators to bring in Christmas like many others in the city later this week.

Also Read: Christmas 2022: How these non-Christian Mumbaikars are celebrating the festival