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When the music turns golden

Coomi Wadia, the 84-year-old conductor of Mumbai's Paranjoti Academy Chorus, completed 50 years in the field. Ornella D'Souza talks to the lady whose choir was the first to put India on the global choral map

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Images: Paranjoti Academy Chorus
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"Even the most vehement fortissimo cannot shake this disciplined woman." This is how Polish magazine Sporzenija had sized up Coomi Wadia, the Music Director and Conductor of the Paranjoti Academy Chorus (PAC), in 1974. It was the first time an Indian choir had participated in the IX International Choral Song Festival, where PAC bagged the first position.

Wadia's choristers insist that even at 84, she is a perfectionist, a no-nonsense figure with a knack for weeding out false notes. Her idea of punctuality — showing up a good 15 minutes before time. Perhaps, these idiosyncrasies pushed PAC to new highs — touring 23 countries for concerts sung in 22 languages, singing for the late Pope John Paul II at the Vatican, participating in the World Festival of Sacred Music on invitation by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and singing at the Rashtrapati Bhavan's Christmas concerts, are only some examples. Not to forget the group's repertoire of Western classical pieces in acapella!

So it was fitting when fans, classical music connoisseurs and ex-choir members assembled at NCPA's Tata Theatre on November 29, to celebrate Wadia's milestone of 50 years as a conductor, kicking off with a thunderous applause. The tiny lady in a purple sari and matching diamond studs bowed at the audience and whispered thank you-s to the accompanying Symphony Orchestra of India (SOI), many a times. What made it even more personal was the involvement of her son Sohrab, a New York based actor and singer, as one of the soloists in the choir. The concert itself featured two pieces by Mozart — Mass in C Major K 317 "Coronation and Requiem Mass in D minor K 626 — dedicated to her husband Nariman, who passed away in April at 76 as the chairman of PAC.

Wadia credits him with being her unflinching support. "If it weren't for him, I wouldn't have become a conductor," says Wadia, sipping her cappuccino at the Yacht Club, a few days after the concert. Incidentally, the club was where she also celebrated her 50th wedding anniversary in October 2015. "Everything in my life revolved around the choir, and he let that happen," she says, noting how Sohrab was born nine days after PAC concert on the Beethoven's Symphony No 9. "Even when Nariman was gravely ill and hospitalised in 1973, he'd ask, 'Why are you here? Don't you have practice today?'" So did this concert emotionally unnerve her? "No. I'm always confident because I know every note of what I'm doing and leave nothing to chance. Besides, in these 50 years, I've experienced both the kicks and the praises."

Wadia forayed into the world of Western classical music when she was just nine, with a hand-me-down piano from a family friend. She scored good grades in Trinity College and eventually joined Victor Paranjoti's choral group Bombay Amateur Light Opera Sabha in 1956. Paranjoti's death in 1960 saw choir members hand over the baton to her, barring three seniors who staged a walkout. Wadia insists it was the transition from a singer to conductor that proved the most daunting.

But the resounding response to PAC's performances assures her that she's doing the right thing. The audience stomping their feet on the wooden floors of halls and churches in Germany, in enjoyment, would be one such instance. PAC's concert at a mountain ski resort in Poland had a Hungarian choir member sitting in the audience hug the singers for belting out a Hungarian song with finesse. Her husband's composition, Jalakamaladala, made a Japanese audience request an encore!

For her technical finesse, she credits two master classes on Bach's religious cantatas in Germany, by conductor Helmuth Rilling. It had Wadia conducting an imaginary orchestra with a choir and piano to understand precision and timing. "I find so much beauty in Bach's work, especially his Mass in B Minor. I'd do that as my last concert, but I need at least six cellos and 2-3 double basses..." trails off Wadia, already planning her swansong.

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