07 Dec 2022  |   05:36am IST

When Christmas music becomes Child’s Play

After their last concert in 2019, Child’s Play India Foundation is making an emotional comeback with their annual Christmas concert, ‘A Christmas Festival’ on December 11. The founder of Child’s Play India Foundation, Dr Luis Dias, has kept the spirit high of these children during the lockdown

Dolcy D’Cruz

The annual Christmas concert, ‘A Christmas Festival’ featuring the Child's Play Chorus, Goa Chamber Choir and Camerata Goa will be performed on December 11 at 6 pm at Menezes Braganza hall, Panjim. This will be their first Christmas concert after their performance in 2019 and their first stage performance after their cello ensemble concert featuring about 20 cello students, just weeks before the coronavirus pandemic hit, in March 2020.

Speaking about the music that one will experience at the concert, Dr Luis Dias, founder of Child’s Play India Foundation, explains the programme, “Camerata Goa will be playing a Minuet by Luigi Boccherini, taken from his string quintet and arranged for string orchestra. They will also play a string ensemble arrangement of Antonin Dvorak’s Humoresque, the seventh in his cycle of eight Humoresques from his piano opus, and the most loved of the selection. Johann Pachelbel’s Canon in D is a staple of young orchestral repertoire, and the recurring chord progression from it actually is found in many pop songs. It is also a popular choice at weddings for the entry of the bride into the church.”

He further adds, “In our Young Performers series at our concerts, we give young musicians (students and teachers) from Child’s Play and the wider community a platform to showcase their proficiency at their instrument. This has been a tradition at our concerts for several years. This year, Manuel Dias will perform the first movement from Jean-Baptiste Breval’s Concertino in A major, accompanied at the piano by Ingrid Anne Nazareth. It is a delightful work. The Bach Arioso is taken from one of his church cantatas and is so popular that it has been arranged for all sorts of instruments and ensemble combinations. You will hear it performed on double-bass by Jasiel Peter, visiting musician from Bangalore, with Ingrid Anne Nazareth at the piano.”

All the three ensembles, Child’s Play Chorus, Goa Chamber Choir and Camerata Goa are Child’s Play initiatives. The Child’s Play Chorus is made up of children not just from the music education project but from the wider community. “We have almost daily enquiries from parents wanting to enrol their children in our choir. Similarly, Camerata Goa (formerly Camerata Child’s Play) is also a community project, and has been around since 2013. It has children and teachers from Child’s Play and musicians from the community. The Goa Chamber Choir, our adult choral ensemble, will be performing a wide range of repertoire from standard choral works to popular music. We welcome adults, young and old, who can sing and love singing to join the choir,” says Dr Luis.

The youngest at this concert is six years old, and the age range extends into the teens and early twenties. All the instruments in a string orchestra, violin, viola, cello, double-bass, will be featured at the concert. They will also have a selection of really beautiful works, Christmas fare and more, played by the students of the flute department and their teacher, Dr Valerie Menezes.

What is special about this concert? Dr Luis aptly emphasises, “We only resumed regular classes in this academic year, in June 2022. Many children had been out of touch with their instruments, just getting back in shape and into more regular practice was the first step. That we could then be able to put up a Christmas concert in a few months, is a testament to the work put in by our students and staff, and this is what makes it so special.”

“We have just launched a double-bass project, which many more well-established music education stakeholders in the state don’t yet offer. This concert will feature a solo performance by one of our students on the instrument, trained by senior bassist Edgar Mendes. We have also restarted our adult choral ensemble, Goa Chamber Choir, made up of singers from the wider community, many of whom have a prior connect with Child’s Play. One of our singers used to be in our children’s choir project in Santa Cruz, and developed the love of ensemble singing there; another is an adult learner in our cello project,” he adds.

The world of music has been highly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic as they could not get the required instruments or enough practice to keep up with their music. Similarly, these young children missed out on years of practice and lost touch with their instruments. “To say that practice was a challenge during the lockdown would be an understatement, not just for us, but for music education worldwide. It was most difficult for players of stringed instruments. Instruments tend to get out of tune very quickly, and unless the child or someone else living with them knows how to tune it back again, it can be a major obstacle. Furthermore, online classes were not so easy to organise for several reasons. Many children don’t have their own devices; their parents may have a phone, but need to take it with them to work. Not all children had access to an internet connection. Over the last two years, many of our students have moved out of area, left school or dropped out of the project while their families tried to recover from the pandemic. Some are focusing on higher studies or are working. This is reflected in our numbers but we are slowly rebuilding years of lost work,” says Dr Luis.

On a positive note, Dr Luis feels a sense of satisfaction when the children take the stage after being through a daunting time. “In all, there will be around sixty performers in two choirs and one orchestra. Participants come from far and wide to attend rehearsals. In an age where at any time of the year, children are preparing for some exam or the other, it hasn’t been easy planning and scheduling rehearsal dates and times. For all these reasons, I feel a particular sense of satisfaction that we’ve been able to pick ourselves up so quickly after we resumed operations post-Covid.”

“Our first group rehearsal after the pandemic was quite emotional for me, and I think for most of us. We were meeting and seeing each other after two years. So many children, I didn’t recognise at first, they had shot up and were now young adults. I remember beginning that rehearsal with a prayer of thanks that we had emerged and lived to tell the tale post-Covid. This concert is not just a celebration of music, but also one of thanksgiving for the joy and gift of being alive,” concludes Dr Luis, with optimism that the music will continue through the works of these young minds.