The Sunday Times Mirror - Voices out-of-the-box

Salma Yusuf chats to Voice.Print about their latest musical production to hit centrestage

The newly established past Benedictine Choral outfit, Voice.Print is all set to produce Up Where We Belong – a choral concert that will include a variety of music encompassing the 70s, 80s and 90s right through to contemporary styles.

The concert will include live performances by a select few of the top-notch choral outfits in the country with Voice.Print as the main act.

“The technical definition of a Voice Print is a graphical impression of a person's voice on paper (like a footprint). We aim to create a lasting impression on the people who listen to our music,” Michael Sathasivam (Director) elaborates. The image of the choir under the leadership of several young generations of musicians has morphed musically from a choir that performed mostly classical music to a choir that performs all types of music ranging from barbershop, plantation, folk, swing, be-bop, r‘n’b, jazz, rock‘n’roll and ethnic music.

The Benedictine choir dates back to the early 1900s. It was in the midst of the First World War, that Bonnie Fonseka, who was a distinguished old Benedictine, had a vision of forming a musical club, which soon became a Benedictine tradition.

This promoted the birth of the first college choir. There were over 50 choristers ranging from sweet-voiced little sopranos to high tenors and big bass singers. The choir acquired a reputation for top class singing, and in addition were often invited to perform at important national events and even got an opportunity to perform with other schools when Princess Elizabeth visited Ceylon in 1952. “It is with pride that we record that the conductor of this combined choir was none other than Bonnie Fonseka,” Michael explains.

The college choir has always been a platform for its students to achieve international recognition musically, and has produced accomplished singers, conductors, accompanists and musicians. Some of the more prominent artistes include the late Sunil Santha, Robert Joseph, Francis D’Almeida, Denzil & Bosco, Raj Seneviratne (Savages), Peter Prins, Benjy Ranabahu, (Aquarius), Trevin Joseph (Phase III) and Donald Perera (Mirage).

The past 10 years have seen a choral renaissance at St. Benedict's with the choir reaching greater heights of success, being cited as one of Sri Lanka’s best classical choirs. This was due to the untiring efforts of Ravien George who was instrumental in reviving the great traditions of the college choir. The hard work and dedication culminated in the choir winning the All-Island Singing Competition in 1999 and was named the Island’s Best Choir in the open category.

Voice.Print is a culmination of a long standing desire by past choristers of St. Benedict's College to continue the great tradition of the college, and form a group of singers and musicians who had a common interest – singing. The choir now comprises about 40 members from all walks of life – bankers, IT professionals, designers, advertising executives and school leavers.

Krishan Ralph Rodrigo, Conductor/ Music Director for the performance, aged 25 is in Business Development at the Aitken Spence Group. Coming from a background of music of three generations, he has successfully conducted shows for the Benedictine choirs in the past as well. He has also conducted the 1000-voice Concert God Spell organised by the Colombo Archdiocese. Krishan was instrumental in bringing together the past choristers to form Voice.Print and is responsible for training and conducting the choir. “Voice.Print is an out-of-the-box type choir which sings different types of music, and that is my motivation. Singing with my peers – guys who I looked up to in school, and guys whom I trained, is a wonderful feeling, and coming back together to join in music is very exciting,” Krishan explains.

He goes further to add, “The challenge in Voice.Print is to bring the boys together, as they are all young working men, with very busy schedules. Bringing them back to achieve high standards after a long break is the most difficult.”

Dilan Elmo Irugalbandara, just 20 years of age, is full-time with Voice.Print Dilan is responsible for arranging all parts for the choir. All music being performed by Voice.Print and the St. Benedict’s College choir on the show days are arranged by him. With an amazing talent to listen to a song once and arrange appropriate parts, he is the backbone of the choir. He sings for a band, which he formed with his classmates, plays guitar and has recorded many originals and is in the process of releasing “It’s You” – an original on Sri Lankan radio.

Michael Sathasivam, runs an IT System Integration company and is responsible for the production and direction of the concert. He has always been into the arts and music, coming from a musical family himself.

Michael has sung with various choirs from a very young age, and currently sings bass for Voice.Print. He also plays trumpet, and was a founder member of the Sri Lanka Youth Orchestra playing percussion. He has sung previously with Choro Benedicte and was the founder leader of the newly revived St. Benedict’s College choir in 1996.

“Voice.Print is very unique in the fact that the boys pick up their parts and harmonise so easily. I think they are the best in the country when it comes to learning new music. All we need is a couple of run throughs and we then move to putting the parts together. This is no easy task, and we are very proud of it,” Michael explains. On a more personal note he says, “Music is my main form of relaxation and after a hectic work day, it's great to get together with the boys and sing. We sometimes improvise at concerts and the melodies are unbelievable.”

Sandeep Milan John, easily one of the most talented keyboardists in the country, is also one of the few talented up and coming instrumentalists. He has since moved on to being an accomplished keyboard player, backing Voice.Print and the St. Benedict’s College choir for most of their concerts. Sandeep along with his brother Shane who is a drummer, have their own band, and will be featured on the show. During the day time Sandeep works at HDPL as a Customer Service Agent.

Eshan Dhanuska Anthony is the Visual Director for Voice.Print. Eshan is responsible for the visual aspects of the choir. He is a keen choreographer and puts together most of the movements for the choir. He is also responsible for designing the costumes and sets for the show. Eshan started off much like the rest in the college choir in 1999, and continued to sing until he left school.

He was a member of the Sri Lanka Symphony Chorus under Lalanath De Silva, singing tenor. He now leads the first tenor section of Voice.Print, and is a featured soloist at the concert.

His musical influences range from Metallica, Elvis, Iron Maiden. Eshan also formed X-Centric – a double quartet a capella group, who will perform at the show.

The back-up band for the guest choirs will comprise both past and present Benedictines, who have come together to form a beat band for the show. The band consists of Pathum Fernando from Sound Journey on lead guitar, Shivantha Fernando on Bass, Shane John on acoustic drums and Sandeep John on keyboards.

The young men of Voice.Print aim to leave a lasting impression on lovers of Western choral music throughout the country with Up Where We Belong, which will hit the stage on September 23, and 24 at the Lionel Wendt at 7 p.m.