The Hindu : New Delhi News : A heart-warming musical treat in the offing

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Tuesday, May 05, 2009
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A heart-warming musical treat in the offing

Staff Reporter

Capital City Minstrels Choir to present its spring concert at Habitat Centre

A delight: Capital City Minstrels Choir, which comprises people from all walks of life, will present a theme of romantic and well-known songs from the 1950s and 1960s on Wednesday.

NEW DELHI: Delhi’s best known choir, the Capital City Minstrels Choir, will perform at the Stein Auditorium of Habitat Centre here this Wednesday.

Presenting the Spring Concert, the choir will offer a theme of romantic and well-known songs from the 1950s and 1960s. The choir has also been invited to perform at the prestigious Lawrence School in Sanawar on May 16 where there will be an educational concert-in-learning for school children.

The choir, which comprises people from all walks of life -- university students and professionals including doctors, lawyers, corporate executives and embassy personnel of all ages and nationalities -- has one thing in common: their love of music.

Zohra Shaw, Fellow of Trinity College of Music, London, founded the choir 11 years ago in 1994. She put together a small chamber ensemble of a dozen singers and in that very first Christmas season had a dozen performances. Today there are more than 40 members with strong voices, many of them accomplished musicians, music professionals and teachers of music.

The Capital City Minstrels Choir’s song repertoire spans a wide range from Western classical music and opera to ballads, folk songs, Broadway musicals, rock, pop, jazz as well as Indian folk music arranged for choir performance. The choir has performed at more than 50 concerts since the early 1990s at prestigious venues including India Habitat Centre, India International Centre, Imperial Hotel, Hyatt Hotel and Ashok Hotel.

Cultural links

The choir has also established strong cultural links with the Hungarian Cultural Centre, Alliance Francaise, the Austrian, Italian and Vatican embassies and regularly performs on special occasions at these places.

Its peace concert in October and Christmas concerts in December are well attended events in Delhi’s music calendar.

The choir also gave a performance in the Capital on Monday.

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