SAIIER 2021:Auroville Choirs

CRIPA (Centre for Research in the Performing Arts)		Music teaching (by Shakti)
Entity::Auroville Choirs by Nuria

This year has been a challenging year for the work with the Choirs. Being essentially a group work we had to wait until the government allowed this type of activity to be able to start the season. This affected differently both Choirs: the Youth Choir had to wait till February to get started, while with the Adult Choir the work could start with individual practices at home. The Adult Choir members regularly received musical scores and recordings to study for when the collective in person rehearsals would be possible. For this season our pianist was Carel. I, Nuria, am the conductor.

The Youth Choir:

The Youth Choir performance in March 2020 was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The program was then carried on into the next season, which started only by February 2021.

After 10 months without rehearsals, being able to sing together again gave the children a great joy and a sense of belonging. This also brought togetherness and a sense of purpose to the group. We had a lovely season, enjoying every single practice. The fact that we were working on a program that children already knew, allowed them to experience more confidence and solidity in their singing. On April 17th and 18th, 2021 we finally were able to give the long-awaited concert in CRIPA, Auroville, which was a big success and we all were able to fully enjoy.

This season the Youth Choir consisted of 30 singers, from 11 different nationalities, in the age group of 9 to 18 years. We met once a week for rehearsals and performed the program 2 evenings. The repertoire was on popular, classical and film themes.

The Adult Choir:

This season we started working on an individual level, every singer learning the songs from home, with the help of a computer program that teaches the music.

When the government regulations again allowed gatherings, we started having rehearsals in small groups. Being a reduced number of singers at each practice not only ensured the required safety measures, but also allowed us to work more precisely and in more detail on the different aspects of the musical composition and on the technical part of the singing and putting the different voices together.

A few months later we finally could start having general rehearsals with all the members at the same time. After so many months, coming back together was a great joy, with a strong sense of belonging and togetherness. It was rewarding to see that when we put all the voices together, all the detailed work done in the small groups showed in a higher quality of singing and music making.

As the season started rather late this year we did not have enough time to complete the whole program and perform the usual annual concert. Nevertheless we decided to do an open rehearsal and present our work in progress to the community by the end of April. Unfortunately due to the Covid-19 pandemic pickup we had to cancel that presentation. Our plan now is to perform the complete program by September 2021.

This season The Adult Choir consisted of 36 singers, from 12 different nationalities, in the age group of 22 to 74. We met twice a week for rehearsals. The program this year was on intimate and spiritually uplifting choral works by Faure, Debussy, Mozart, Whitacre, Lauridssen, Gjeilo, Tallis and Jenkins.

One good thing that the lockdown provided was an amount of hours that I, with the help of Shanks, could dedicate to create a web site for each Choir. It was a long pending task to organize and share all the material I have been collecting during the 27 years of work with the choirs. Now both sites, although not fully finished, are up and open for everyone to enjoy.

• Adult Choir: aurovillechoir.wordpress.com
• Youth Choir : aurovilleyouthchoir.wordpress.com