Choirs at ‘Aachi Sing The Season – 2010' not just trilled carols, they also enacted them. Choreography, elaborate costumes and props lent this edition of the annual singing contest a visual charm. The choirs took the extra effort because cleverly-employed props and well-chosen costumes won rewards. There was, in fact, an assortment of other prizes, which meant that only a few competing choirs left the Madras University Centenary Auditorium empty-handed.
These additional prizes — aimed at recognising efforts and contributions that often go unnoticed — included Marksmen's Award (for the team that made the difference), best debut choirs (school, college and church), best choir leaders and best Tamil choirs. Since timeless carols have an edge over new compositions, even the good ones, a category called ‘New Compositions' was instituted to reward efforts at originality.
Eclecticism
The choice of carols and their presentation demonstrated captivating eclecticism. For the Huron Carol, plucked out of 17th-Century Canada, the band of singers from St. Luke's Church put on the coarse clothes of native Indians and decorated their faces with streaks of paint. The little singers from MCC Campus School turned out in pavadai-dhavani and dhotis and sang a Tamil carol spiked with Carnatic elements. When CSI Ewart Girls Higher Secondary School got singers dressed as zoo-zoos to sing carols, the picture was arresting. This school choir also rapped out a portion of a carol, while a Santa matched it with the movements of a rap artiste. Another painstaking effort came from St. Christopher's College, which created two bell towers with gauzy material — it served as accompaniment to the Ding Dong Merrily On High sung by its choir.
The majority of teams were evenly matched, as was reflected in the results. Two teams were tied for the top prize in the school (St. John's Matriculation Higher Secondary School-Villivakkam and St. John's Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Mandaveli) and church (CSI St. George's Cathedral Church and CSI St. Stephen's Church) categories. Instead of ordering deciders, the judges allowed joint toppers in both categories to share the trophy. Lady Doak College, Madurai, bested all the other teams in the college category.
The prizes were given away by music director Harris Jeyaraj; the contest was judged by music director Shyam Joseph, worship leader and preacher Pastor Alwin Thomas, leading soprano soloist in Chennai Martha Howie, music director Chitty Prakash Dhyriyam and principal of St. John's International School, Winfred Chellaiah.
