Thousands of Dhaka audience was captivated by Shillong Chamber Choir as the troupe presented some old popular numbers with new music falvour on Friday at Shaheed Suhrawardy Indoor Stadium in Mirpur.
The troupe presented yesteryear’s popular Hindi, English and Bangla classics fusing those with other genres such as traditional music of the subcontinent and western opera and rock.A leading Indian troupe Shillong Chamber Choir was invited to perform in Bangladesh as post Eid celebration programme by Indira Gandhi Cultural Centre.
The stadium was teeming with music enthusiast and aficionados. They warmly welcomed the Shillong Chamber Choir, which has some remarkable achievements performing in different choir music festivals in Asia and Europe.
The vocals of the team- six women in white and five men in black attire- with the instrumentalists, led by the conductor Neil Nongkynrih, also the founder of the band, thanked the cheerful and supportive audience.
The show began with presentation of a soprano aria, a western classical genre in which female vocals perform high-pitched voice. With their high-pitched voice modulation, the six women vocalists sang German composer George Ferideric Handel’s composition titled Lascia chio pianga.
Subsequently, the choir with new music settings, which the band calls revamp music, performed a Bollywood hit number Tu Ashik hay tu asma. Presenting the number Shillong Chamber Choir won the reality TV show, India’s Got Talent, in October 2010 on Colors TV.
The choir made the audience dance and roll in the two-hour show as they got the flavours of different genres of music with Bollywood popular numbers like Iye Dosti, Dil he chotasa, Khabhi yar khabhi pyar, Chura liye he tumne and others.
But, these fusions were not like typical ‘remix’ tracks. The band especially the pianist Neil Nongkynrih played with music with passion and skill.
For instance, the smooth transformation of sentimental Hindi number Har ghari badol rahi, a playback of Kal Hona Ho, with the popular English number Every night in my dreams, the playback of Titanic, touched the heart of the audience.
It was a pleasant surprise for the Dhaka audience when Dona, one of the vocalists, came forward and, in her beautiful tone, started singing Sachin Dev Burman’s evergreen number Banshi shune ear kaj nai. The surprise was heightened further when another vocalist Williams started Tagore’s number Jodi tor daak shune.
These two songs, presented in a combined form, got the most reverberation from the thousands audience.
After a short break, the show resumed playing revamps of hit numbers such Spanish senorita, Why this Kolaveri, We will rock you, Somebody to love and others.
Realising the taste of the audience, conductor Neil led the two vocalists Dona and Williams to wrap up the show presenting the ‘revamp’ compositions of Banshi shune ear kaj nai and Jodi tor daak shune.
On the nature of their revamp music Neil Nongkynrih said, ‘I love twisting all. I hope no one returns unhappy from our concert. That is why I incorporate popular film songs, folk tune, opera, rock numbers and others.’
‘It was a great evening for me and my friends. Shillong Chamber Choir is really marvelous’, said Morshed hasan, after the show.
Some of the viewers also complained for poor sound system. ‘We could not listen to the songs properly for the poor sound system’, complained Sadikur Reza.
The troupe will also perform today at the Sylhet Auditorium in Sylhet.
-With New Age input
