Plus

To win someone’s heart with your voice is one thing. But to conquer the world, is a different matter. Representing Sri Lanka and consequently doing the country proud at the 4th World Choir Games in Xiamen, China, ‘Soul Sounds’ most definitely made an impact.

Consisting of girls from Holy Family Convent, Bambalapitiya, a majority of whom are past pupils, while a few are still schooling, the choir was the sole representative from Sri Lanka at the event. Considered the Olympic Games of choirs, almost 20,000 had taken part from 400 choirs representing 80 countries. Soul Sounds, which took part in the ‘Gospel and Spiritual’ as well as the ‘Scenic Folklore’ categories, secured silver medals in both.

“The experience was just amazing,” says Soundarie David, music director of the choir, adding that all choirs taking part were of a high standard. “We were in an Olympic village and basically from the time you wake up in the morning, throughout the day, all you hear is choirs practising in different languages. It was out of this world.”

Commenting on the points system used by the judges, she said any choir that received over 80 points was entitled to a gold medal. “For the Gospel category, we got 79.5 points, just missing a gold medal and for the Scenic Folklore category, we received 75 points,” she said.

With most countries sending in more than one choir, the Sri Lankans’ performance was impressive, especially since they were the youngest choir in the Gospel category. The Soul Sounds team of 28 who went to China included Soundarie David, Mignonne Fernando and Christopher Prins on drums. The artistic director for the choir was Jerome de Silva.

“Most of the other choir members were much older, and obviously experienced, so it was a great learning experience for us. The entire atmosphere was amazing and it was a unique experience,” says Michelle Joseph, the choir leader for this season. She added that the versatility of their repertoire was a positive point for them. “The songs we chose were quite varied, with ‘He’s the Rock’, ‘Let us bake’ which was unaccompanied and ‘Joyful Joyful’ with piano and drums, for the Gospel category. The line up for the Scenic Folklore category was ‘Dannobudunge’, representing the spiritual essence of Sri Lankan traditions, kavi and ‘Ahasata Pimbina’ bringing out the village atmosphere and ‘Mangala Mohatha’, a wedding song. Each choir had to sing for 20 minutes with their chosen line up.

Soundarie stressed that the country’s arts needs to be supported much more, giving room for individuals with potential such as these young choristers to develop.