Thaindian News

June 18, 2010 (Sampurn Wire): An extraordinary international choir “The Voices of Baha’ is going to captivate the music lovers of Mumbai today, by their debut performance in India.

The “Voices of Baha’ was created by 125 singers from 20 countries. The performance will include Indian and Western songs with 10 Hindi songs composed by the sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar. The legendary figure composed the numbers in 1986 in association with another Indian composer Ashit Desai and an American songwriter Tom Price.

The beautiful songs were composed for the inaugural ceremony of the Baha’i House of Worship (Lotus Temple) in New Delhi. These Hindi songs were written by combining the Indian and Western choral singing, which had never been performed in public since then.

In 1993, under the guidance of its director Tom Price, “The Voices of Baha’ first performed in Russia. Since last 17 years, the international choir has been performing in 35 countries.

Speaking about their first performance in India, Price stated, “Our orchestra band for the performance includes only Indians. Half of the songs are in Hindi and the rest are in English and Persian, which is also being tried for the first time.”

All the members of the International choir have travelled to India at their own expenses.

Van Gilmer, the African-American solo Gospel singer, said, “We have all united here only for the power of music as it touches everyone’s heart. Faith and music are the two things common between all of us.”

Emily Price, the classical opera vocalist informed that the songs are a combination of Indian ragas and Western classical harmonization. Emily said that initially, they faced problems to learn singing in a new language but simultaneously they enjoyed the learning experience thoroughly.

Rachael Price, jazz and pop recording artist of Concord Records said, “We perform in different countries and perform one song of their local language in the tour. We can learn more about their tradition and culture through these tours.”

Ashit Desai and his wife Hema will be singing the solo Hindi songs. Desai said, “The choir will perform the harmonized songs and we will sing the Hindi lines.”

All the choir members will wear his/her respective national dress but Emily and Rachael will wear the Indian saree. An excited Emily said, “India is full of bright colors and we can reflect it though the concert.”

The Jamshed Bhabha Theatre at the National Centre for the Performing Arts will host the concert at 7pm.

– Sampurn Wire