When I met up with a few members of the infamous Revelations at Cinnamon Grand last week, we got chatting about their latest concert which is to be held in July and the road they have travelled to get to the point of being the world’s 6th ranked Male Vocal Choir. This is yet another highlight being the fact that they are the only Choir from Asia to have earned such a prestigious title, according to the latest rankings released by Music Mundi.
The Revelations have been together for 15 years and in order to celebrate this, they will be staging a concert in July. After having performed a number of times and having always pleased their audience, what could possibly top this concert, one may wonder? “We will be performing four originals for the first time,” says Sanjeev Jayaratnam, Choral Director and Leader, The Revelations, adding, “One of the originals is a song on unity, reconciliation and development and will have between 120 – 140 voices joining us in singing it.” They have extended an invitation to a number of choirs namely the Benedictine Choral, the LG Singers, Contempo, the Old LCites, The Revelations Academy adults, Mystical Rose Montessori and the students of Meneka Sahabandu.
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“The music selection for this concert will be varied,” says Sanjeev to which he added, “When we started off we were routed in heavy sacred and classical numbers but the programme has changed toward more contemporary numbers.” Ishan de Lanerolle, President, The Revelations went on to say their harmonies have become more and more intricate from performance to performance.
This time’s concert will showcase a lot of pop, barbershop numbers as well as a nursery rhyme (which the group says will certainly be a pleasant surprise!) In addition they will be performing numbers by The Temptations, The Mills Brothers, Paul Simon and Van Morrison.
“We will be celebrating our 15th year,” says Enaksha Fernando, Secretary, The Revelations
to which Sanjeev added that even though this is their 15th year they have been performing consistently only during the last three years. The group has in fact seen at least 30 to 40 changes in their line up over the years. “Enaksha and Sanjeev are the only two surviving members,” Ishan quips.
“We feel that we appeal to a fairly wide audience,” Sanjeev says, adding, that their music appeals to almost anyone who appreciates descent music. “From my point of view, a lot of people who like rap and even rock appreciate what we sing,” says Charith Peris, a member of the group.
“I think the originals will be a totally new dimension to this concert,” says Priyan de Livera, Manager, The Revelations adding that the reconciliation song will certainly be worth listening to as the lyrics have been written by Afdel Aziz and Sanjeev, while the music has been written by Sanjeev. In addition, two of the other originals have been written by Krishan Jayaratnam.
He feels why The Revelations appeal so much to their audiences is because of their style in terms of their voices and their harmonies. Their forte so to speak, has always been their acapella numbers which help them stand out.
Priyan went on to state that this will be their first concert since the concert at the Cinnamon Grand which was held last August to celebrate them winning in Graz, Austria. “I would call this a celebration of what has been achieved because a lot of people have put in a lot of hard work, with juggling their families and careers.”
“From what we hear, audiences have been wondering what we will be having next,” to which he added that their appreciative audiences will certainly want to be part of this celebration, “I am sure it will be a terrific concert and certainly something to celebrate after 15 years.”
The Revelations in Concert – “Celebrating 15 years of Music and Fun” will be staged on July 4 and 5, 2009 at the Lionel Wendt Theatre at 7pm. Tickets will be priced at Rs. 1500/-, Rs.1000/-, Rs.750/- and Rs.500/- and will be available at Bayleaf, 79, Gregory’s Road, Colombo 7, Park Street Mews, 50/1, Park Street, Colombo 1 and at the Lionel Wendt. For further details please contact Priyan on 077 732 9287 or Enaksha on 077 732 4425. The main sponsor for the performance is Dialog, while JWT comes in as a co-sponsor.
The electronic media sponsor will be Yes FM, while the print media sponsors are the Sunday Times, The Daily Mirror and the HI Magazine.
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