What better way to celebrate the season than with music! And this is how the Christmas season was ushered in by the 40-voice choir, the Festival Choristers, an all-volunteer choir, accompanied by an all-volunteer Orchestra, conducted by Sushil Pakyanadhan to commemorate its tenth anniversary on December 4, at Shilpa Kala Vedika, Hyderabad.The choir presented a varied programme of uplifting Christmas music that ranged from the classical to the modern. And raised their voices to all the touch-points of good choral singing; a harmonious blending of voices, precise timing, good dynamics — going from loud to soft and back, with every gradation in between — and all this with a tonal quality that was ripe, resonant and well-balanced.
Devotees of choral music had much to savour – because the Festival Choristers really understood the art of singing and executed the programme superbly under the direction of Sushil Pakyanadhan, the conductor of the Festival Choristers, whose direction deftly set the tone and shaped the contours of the performance, and brought all the elements –
the Sopranos, the Altos, the Tenors and the Basses and the accompanying piano and orchestra together without one overwhelming the other and instilled emotion, by indicating rhythms, and nuances of tempo - swells and fades, entries and cutoffs.
The programme was a mix of Classical and modern music. Two songs, ‘Gloria’, by Antonio Vivaldi and the ‘Hallelujah Chorus’, by G.F. Handel, opened and closed the programme. Both these composers were of the baroque era, and these two ornate and elaborately composed songs, accompanied by piano and orchestra, were executed by the choir with exuberance and precision. Another two songs, ‘Grant Unto us Thy Peace O Lord’ by Felix Mendelsohhn Bartholdy, a composer of the Romantic Era of Classical music, and Gesu Bambino, composed by Pietro A. Yon, a composer of the Modern Era, were the other Classical pieces that the Choir performed, both of which called for expertise from the choir and the conductor to bring out the flowing beauty of these songs.
This entertaining and beautifully prepared celebration of spiritual well-being was not limited to classical music. One of the songs ‘Sing Praise’ was a Puerto
Rican melody, and another, ‘African Alleluia’ was based on a Gambian folk song. And in ‘Parmeshwar Prem Hai’, verses of the song were sung in Telugu, Tamil and Hindi.
All the soloists were competent, and the women’s duet in the sweet sounding ‘O Lovely Peace’, and the mens’ quartet that sang ‘In The Highest Glory’, in close harmony, were particularly pleasing to the ear.
Rican melody, and another, ‘African Alleluia’ was based on a Gambian folk song. And in ‘Parmeshwar Prem Hai’, verses of the song were sung in Telugu, Tamil and Hindi.All the soloists were competent, and the women’s duet in the sweet sounding ‘O Lovely Peace’, and the mens’ quartet that sang ‘In The Highest Glory’, in close harmony, were particularly pleasing to the ear.
Before the main choir came on, the evenings programme began with a young choir of boys and girls wearing red and green polo shirts, who sang ‘We usher in this Christmas’ by Johannes Brahms, and ‘Merry Christmas’, a melody by W.A Mozart. It was their touching innocence, their sense of rhythm and the enthusiasm of this young choir that had been coached and prepared by Ranjit Mathew and conducted by Commodore Champion, that really stood out.
But that was not all that made this an evening of lovely peace, the Seniors’ Choristers, comprising singers who had been in the Festival Choristers over the past ten years, proficiently performed a medley called ‘I Love You Lord’.
But that was not all that made this an evening of lovely peace, the Seniors’ Choristers, comprising singers who had been in the Festival Choristers over the past ten years, proficiently performed a medley called ‘I Love You Lord’.
The Festival Choristers, celebrating ten years of performance, and, the accompanying pianist and orchestra, deserve recognition not only for engrossing, and skillful musicianship, but for their vibrant tone and unity of approach.
A depleted Festival Choristers later performing at the Governors residence. 
Appeared in The Hindu, Friday Review, on Friday 11th Dec.
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