A Bandra-based children’s choir with a 40-year-old legacy, will take stage for a special showcase this weekend
The children’s choir at a previous performance in the city. Pics Courtesy/Dawn Cordo
If life had a background score, the glorious swell of a children’s choir would be saved for those rare moments of revelation. Much like when we were endlessly scrolling online earlier this week, and a video clip of a young group harmonising an angelic tune suddenly cut through the noise. Gleehive, the children’s choir born in Ranwar, Bandra, nearly four decades ago, has been silently nurturing voices in the hip suburb. This week, a new batch of young choristers is rehearsing for a special showcase for a cause.
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Director Dawn Cordo, a Berklee College of Music graduate, has composed countless jingles, arranged choir music for two decades, and even performed alongside maestro AR Rahman in 2010. But ask her for a story, and she’ll tell you about Celeste Cordo. Dawn’s mother, and founder of the choir, Celeste, now 66 years old, started the choir with the vision to bring children in her neighbourhood together through music. “Music classes dotted the lanes of Bandra back then, but they all functioned in isolation,” Dawn recalls.
The showcase will also feature a young woodwind section
The Cordos’ idea proves just as transformative for the children’s choir today, as it did decades ago. “When they sing now, they’re never alone. One child’s weak area is balanced by another’s strength. They all lift each other up,” Cordo points out, adding that the concept of a strict system with certification and grades never struck a chord with the family. As eight-year-old member Lisa Fernandes puts it, “Simply getting a ‘Good job!’ from Celeste and Dawn at the end of a tough song is my favourite part.”
The thought reflects in the upcoming show’s theme, Every Drop Counts. While the young vocalists harmonise on songs like Why We Sing, a group of adult choristers from the Cadenza Kantori choir will chime in with jazz standards, Broadway classics and a few surprise tunes that might ring a bell. “The theme works two ways — firstly to remind us that every member of the community counts, and in a more literal sense, that our water bodies need immediate attention,” Cordo reveals. To that end, a collection stall at the venue will encourage spectators to donate dry waste to be recycled.
A lighthearted moment from a rehearsal in Bandra
At the Bandra venue this weekend, the director will have an eye not only on the children in her choir, but those who come visiting in the audience. “The repetitive rhymes children watch on their iPads nowadays aren’t doing much more than keeping them addicted to the screen. Experiencing live music has profound positive effects on a child’s development,” she remarks. “Sometimes, the arrangements are challenging but hearing our voices in harmony is the best feeling ever!” confirms 13-year-old member Mariah Miranda.
Dawn Cordo
Is there then a right age to join a choir? While Cordo sets that number at five years old, she insists it is never too early to listen to one live. “My mother tells me that when I was only nine months old, I crawled to her choir rehearsal at home and watched it till the end. I was always sceptical about the story until I recently embraced motherhood myself. Sure enough, at 18 months old, my son now waddles right into my rehearsals,” she laughs. If life had a background score, a children’s choir would swell in right about now.
ON April 6; 7 pm
AT St Andrew’s Auditorium, St Dominic Road, Bandra West.
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