The joy of singing the Christmas story in many languages

The Stop-Gaps have been around for 30 years. This year, they will sing in Tamil, adding one more language to a repertoire that has included Chinese

Mikes, sound, testing 1 2 3 4 hello, hello? That's not what you're going to hear here. For Alfred D'Souza, founder and director of the Stop-Gaps, neck-deep in rehearsals for the upcoming Christmas season doesn't believe in voice enhancers.

For him, natural sound is purity personified. In a few weeks from now, the Stop-Gaps will play their annual three-day Festival of festive music which will feature, for the first time, carols in Tamil.

That's no big deal for a choir that has travelled the globe and sung in a variety of languages including  Chinese Christmas carols in China.

It's a journey that goes all the way back to 1972. For D'Souza, the floods of 1972 in Chennai were an eye-opener. He was student back then, studying Social Work, when floods ravaged the city.

 "I wanted to raise funds for victims of the floods, especially the dhobis, whose huts were washed away when the Adyar overflowed its banks," D'Souza recalls
So D'Souza got formed a group along with their families to go door-to door to collect money for these people from which they bought food and clothes and distributed these on Christmas morning.

These events fired D'Souza with a mission. He used the same group to raise funds and provide entertainment for various social causes for eight straight years till he took up a job in Mumbai, and moved to this city.

Today, the choir he heads is an institution in itself. It's motley set of people, whose common passion is music. Zubin Tatna, a Parsi, who sings bass has been the choir for 9 years. "I like to challenge myself all the time and for me, singing is a big high, " he says.

Of Tamil-Bengali parentage is Aditya Iyer, an engineering student. Iyer is a tenor and also on the choir's managing committee and takes charge of costumes.

Rukshana Jokhi, mother of two teenage sons, conducts fitness and yoga classes and sings alto. Tina Sutaria is an image consultant, and soprano. There's also Bhavika Jariwala who sings soprano and is a student of the catering College.

D'Souza himself has been into music as a toddler. He has been singing since he was four. Has music changed his life? Over the years, he says music has given him confidence, a deep faith, and brought him and his troupe in contact with various people, “princes and paupers” alike. "It has taught me acceptance of others and given me the will to persevere," he says.

The choir has 40 singers, all working full-time jobs who squeeze out time for choir practice. They have also played overseas, the experience of which has been not just the thrill of winning, but about participating with some of the best choirs from around the world. "Our audiences are spellbound by our vast repertoire which is totally committed to memory. We live up to our motto, 'Bridging the world with song, " says  Alfred.

The bedrock of the choir are veterans like Jennifer D'Souza has been with the Stop-Gaps for twenty years. "Singing lifts my spirits, I forget my stress." she smiles. She also doubles up as secretary for the group. She manages to squeeze in over two hours every evening for choir practice, this inspite of household chores and looking after the grandchildren etc.

The Stop-Gaps have, so far, taken part in three international competitions. In 2004, it won the silver and bronze medal at Bremen, Germany. In 2006, the silver and 2 bronze medals in China, and last July, two bronze medals at Miltonberg, in Bavaria. Apart from this the Stop-Gaps have participated in singing festivals in Nassau, France and Israel.

 "We were the first choir to sing Indian Christmas carols," says D'Souza. "The Chinese were amazed to hear us sing in Chinese too, with perfect diction. We sing in Konkani, Hindi, Latin, German, besides, of course English,"

For the Festival of Festive Music next month, the choir will sing Tamil songs especially composed by D'Souza.

D"Souza's versatility helps. He plays the piano, when he's not conducting, specially at the rehearsals, as well as the violin,  tabla, flute and the organ.

Next month, the choir has lined up 36 pieces, 12 on each evening, to the theme of '25 years of Plenty'. 15 choirs from all over India.

Every member of the audience will be given a takeaway called 'Horn of Plenty' which is also the final song of the evening and the theme of the stage décor on that day.

Alfred is very particular about dress code. " We set the standard. Other choirs are now more particular about how they dress after seeing us," he said. "It's all about discipline and dynamics, the choreography, where the dress plays a very important part," he says.

Listening to the Stop-Gaps rehearse, the Tamil tutor, polishing their accents, the blend of voices rising to a crescendo, it looks like already Christmas is here.

  d_francis@dnaindia.net