The Choir paid tribute to Tagore and his ‘Gitanjali.’

Thousand voices and one celebration… The Netaji Indoor Stadium in Kolkata, reverberated with poems of Nobel laureate Rabindranatha Tagore recently as Sangeet Bharati Muktadhara presented ‘Echoes of Gitanjali’ to commemorate 100 years of Rabindranath Tagore’s Nobel in Literature and Gitanjali.

For the 1000 singers from all over India – Chennai, Patna, Mumbai, Delhi, Gurgaon, Bengaluru, Baroda, IIT-Kanpur, Allahabad and Bhilai – the show, conceptualised, scripted and directed by Arundhati Deb, president, Sangeet Bharati Muktadhara, came after months of rigorous practice. The theme was the lotus, and sure enough, the singers on stage were positioned to represent the national flower.

For the group of 12 singers from Chennai group, it was a perfect opportunity to pay tribute to Gitanjali and its profoundly fresh beautiful verse.

Years ago, travelling abroad, Tagore witnessed western classical music concerts featuring musicians numbering 1000 to 2000. This left a lasting impression on him, observers had said. Nevertheless, Tagore had not voiced his latent desire – to give a similar treatment to his compositions.

“The programme titled ‘Echoes of Gitanjali’ commemorates 100 years of Tagore’s English Gitanjali,” said the 60-something-Arundhati Deb, who travelled from city to city to refine the performances of the different groups. She was in Chennai to help the team with singer Swati Bhattacharya taking the lead.

Hailing from a family deeply interested in music, Arundhati Deb grew up fascinated with Rabindra Sangeet. After a Master’s Degree in English and an editing stint, her desire to do some serious work with Tagore surfaced. The result? The first 1000 Voices Choir in 2007.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Friday Review / by Renuka Suryanarayan / July 10th, 2015