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Perfect harmony
The voices of the 35-odd men and women blended to a perfect rhythm and harmony. The voices belonged to the choir of the Emmanuel Methodist Church, Vepery. The choir has been active since the mid-1950s, maintaining a high quality of singing.
In a recent choral assessment done by the Trinity College, London, the EMC senior choir reached the gold level, a prestigious achievement.
With proficient conductors such as Dr. Gnanamuthu, Robin Daniel and Sam Kamalesan as guides, the choir has had an excellent track record. There has been focus on classical and contemporary music during the tenure of Samuel Grubb and Kalyan Subramaniam. The present conductor, James David, a tenor himself, says he was inspired to take up the test when he attended many choral music concerts abroad as member of the Madras Musical Association and GATT. He adds that they took the offer of appearing for the assessment from the Trinity College through the Madras chapter, Musee Musicals.
"The preparation for the evaluation helped us identify our weak points and rectify them", says Augustine Paul, a member of the choir.
Prior to this, the EMC choir went through the procedure of learning Western notation. It was a challenging test to be able to change voices according to each piece, opined another member.
Apart from the vocal exercises, they sang a medley, "What A Saviour" and a piece from Hadyn's "Creation" "Achieved is the glorious work", for the assessment.
"This of just the beginning of our training", sums up Augustine Paul.
The EMC choir is an inspiration for others who want to take singing seriously.
PRINCESS NAIK
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