Neil Nongkynrih says he is a late bloomer when it comes to music. Having been introduced and taught western classical music at a young age, Neil could appreciate good music, but forming a choir group was far from his mind. “My first teacher was my sister, she is a pianist and she taught and introduced me to music. Music was there with me all the time. It was only when I went to London to do my higher studies, after completing my schooling in Delhi, that I developed a different yearning for music. Thus the Shillong Chamber Choir (SCC) was born,” recollects Neil. But when he organised the first concert in Shillong in 2001, he decided to do away with the image of a ‘typical’ choir.
Recently, yet again the choir group touched the soul of Indians as they sang for the inaugural episode of Kaun Banega Crorepati .
Neil also composes music, writes songs and plays piano for the band. The Shillong Chamber Choir has evolved into a multi-genre choir. The choir group became popular when they participated and won the reality TV show, India’s Got Talent in 2010. But much before that, the group had already made waves in the Northeast and abroad with their unique style of rendering songs in various languages.
Unlike all choir groups, SCC doesn’t just sing religious melodies. Does that make them different and appealing to a wider section of audience? “More than the genre it’s the language that makes us quickly acceptable. I was also a purist in terms of music and was strict about sticking to Western Classical music. But that is a niche genre and if I wanted music to appeal to all, I realised, I need to loosen up my stance. When I began, I wanted the people of Shillong to experience choir music outside the confines of a choir. Around this time, I wrote a song, ‘When I think of you’ and a friend of mine translated it in Hindi. After the music was composed and when it was rendered, it touched my soul. Once at a show, I got a request to play a Hindi song, and I didn’t know any, except Yeh dosti hum nahi . I grew up so immersed in western classical, I never paid attention to Bollywood music. But I modified that and here we are, singing songs to cater to everyone — from children to adults,” recollects Neil. And that is why when Neil and his group isn’t touring or performing else where, they perform in an open-air auditorium which is a part of Neil’s home.
The year the group won India’s Got Talent , the choir group also won three gold awards at the Sixth World Choir Games for Musica Sacra, Gospel and Popular Music.
The choir’s versatility ranges from performances with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra and the Fitz William Quartet to collaborations with Amitabh Bachchan for the opening of Kaun Banega Crorepati season 6 . The show is said to have had the highest opening in 2012 across all shows on all general entertainment channels, breaking all previous records.
Besides television, “SCC is constantly busy with music as a lot is happening. We are doing collaborations, shows and in the pipeline is a major musical tour within the country. Collaboration with a movie project and tours abroad are in the offing. Music mostly keeps my singers busy, and they also help me with organising and administration of the band,” says Neil.
Neil points out that they sing for various reasons and one of them is about to bring awareness, create love and compassion among fellow Indians. Their video ‘I am’ was beautifully shot in and around Shillong featuring students who spoke about the need to exercise their voting right. “It was non-political,” he points out.
They have also teamed up with musicians like Shankar Ehsaan Loy and Usha Uthup. Their Christmas album in 2011 became the highest selling in the country for non-cinematic music.
A notable collaboration that took place on March 1, 2013 was seeing Neil Nongkynrih on the piano, the voices of the Shillong Chamber Choir and Ustad Zakir Hussain on tabla. The SCC has performed extensively in India and toured Europe, the UK, Canada, North America and South East Asia.
