From a land famed for crystal glass, leather furniture and, of course, ABBA, came a choir group to light up a wintry night.
Swedish choir Rostjarn — which means ‘voices of iron’ in Swedish — performed a brand of music to ‘spread joy and peace’ in the coastal town of Puducherry.
Rostjarn was in Puducherry with 20 of its members. Rendering the Swedish Walking Tune, Rostjarn choir leader Hans Rising introduced his choir members to the audience. “The word Rostjarn is associated with sailing, and means voices of iron,” Hans Rising said,while playing the guitar.
The choir group, formed in a school in Stockholm about six years ago, was travelling to India for the first time.
It began with a Christmas carol. “It is the Christmas season and we wanted to sing this song for you,” he said, as they sang ‘Oh come holy faithful’.
After the Christmas carols, the singers tuned into a folk song from Cuba, singing the ‘song for freedom’ written by Cuban folk singer and songwriter Silvio Rodriguez. The group captivated the audience with songs from Africa, choosing ‘The Difference’ by Salif Keita of Mali, who devoted his life to music and struggled against racial discrimination.
“This song is about how differences in life make things beautiful,” said a member from the choir, who chose this song for the choir to perform in Puducherry.
Later, the listeners got a flavour of music from Caribbean Islands.
The ‘voices of iron’ presented the world music orchestra music, a medley of tunes from across the world to the audience at Aurodhan gardens in Kuruchikuppam in Puducherry.
They will be performing in Kerala and Bengaluru in the coming week.
“One of the members in our team is from India. It was because of him, that we had planned this travel and we are happy to begin our journey in India from Puducherry. We will be travelling to Kerala and Karnataka to perform in the coming weeks,” said the choir leader.
