The month of December is my favourite time not only because I get a bucket load of gifts but also because there are so many concerts happening in and around Colombo. A few days ago I found myself driving on a soaking Wednesday to the Lionel Wendt to watch a concert of one of my favourite genres of music - A capella!

Harpo’s Restaurants and Cafés presented the Victoria Chorale all the way from Singapore. The brainchild of reknown music director Nelson Kwei in 1988, the Victoria Chorale is one of Singapore's top semi-professional choirs. Comprising graduands of Victoria School and Victoria Junior College, the choir presently has 33 singers and performs an extensive repertoire ranging from sacred Latin works to contemporary Asian songs and light jazz.

The evening started off with the sacred music section with “Come Again Sweet Love Doth Now Invite", and a few others. My favourite from this section would have to be “Ave Verum” in which the intricate harmonies would flow through the hall and also bring back nostalgic memories of my days in the choir of St. Joseph’s College.

To end off the first half the choir presented two songs on a much lighter scale titled "Two For The Price of One" which was a hilarious take on the famous nursery rhyme "This Old Man" and this was followed by another hilarious song titled "Goslings". To start off the second half the Victoria Chorale was joined by the choir of Christ the Living Saviour and then followed by "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" for which the vocals were sung by Ishan De Lanerolle.

Tunes from The Beatles had the audience at the edge of their seats wanting more and when Rohan De Lanerolle joined the choir to perform “Yesterday”, the crowd just had to sing along! Both the De Lanerolle Brothers joined the choir to perform “Do You Hear What I Hear” which was another fantastic rendition of the song!

I must add that I was very impressed by the basses in the choir who sounded very rich and full of depth while the comperer of the evening who was another member of the choir was also brilliant! The Victoria Chorale then went to take some of the well loved Christmas songs and carols to bring the evening to a perfect end leaving the audience begging for more.

Comments from the audience

Really good show. – Sanjeev

Very nice, I really enjoyed it. – Jehan

Very enjoyable. – Keith

Lovely show. – Namalika

Good show, I loved every minute of it. – Yohan

The show was technically wonderful. – Andre

I liked the upbeat and seasonal tunes. – Harshini

It was wonderful. – Kumar

By Reihan Stephen
Photos by Pradeep Dilrukshana