World Choral Day - Music Makes the World Go Round

I started this blog to celebrate the universal language of mankind. And how appropriate can it be, that I compile this Golden post to celebrate a special day in music. 

The Second Sunday of December is earmarked as World Choral Day. And with Christmas  less than two weeks away, choirs are busy practicing or performing Christmas Carols at various venues ranging from homes, churches, malls and even concert halls.

For more than 30 years, Mumbai has been celebrating the "Festival of Festive Music" organised by the Stop Gaps Cultural Academy (under the guidance of Alfred J D'Souza) at the National Centre of Performing Arts with Christmas performances from the best choirs in Mumbai and beyond. This year, was no different. In fact the wonderful festival coincided with the World Choral Day celebrations.

Over the last year, I have received umpteen invitations to join this top choir of Mumbai. Also I have been fortunate to attend their performances  with the Hohenlohe Brass Ensemble in August 2014 and again the opportunity to introduce them as they performed the best of Festive Music at the Sevadaan Entertainment Extravaganza in Chembur on this very weekend last year. And they did sound absolutely out of this world. 

As part of the World Choral Day celebration, I had my own part to play at a much smaller but nevertheless important event that got together young musicians from various parishes of our Deanery for a choir festival of our own. The children from Sunday School put up some wonderful Christmas Carols, Christmas skits and more to share in the joy of the season. We even had a violin performance by a young girl, Sharon Joseph from OLPS Parish playing "O Come All Ye Faithful" to celebrate World Violin Day (celebrated on 13th December every year). Beautiful, truly beautiful... (More pictures of the event here) 

If you enjoy Choral Music, I'm sure you would have heard and enjoyed one of my favorite Christmas Carol albums (also possibly among the first I ever heard) - The Gunter Kallman Choir. Enjoy the Medley.

A Big Thank You to all of you who read and listen to this blog. I'm happy writing it for you. Do feel free to share your comments and feedback with me. Or even suggest a topic I should cover or music I should post here. Do go out this Christmas and do something special. I'll be with you from time to time with more musical thoughts in the next few days and into the New Year.