Saturday 11 March 2017

Yale University choir to perform at Chennai’s St Mary’s Church

Yale University choir to perform at Chennai’s St Mary’s Church

Schola begins its tour of India from March 12 to 19, holding performances in Delhi, Mumbai, and Chennai.

 

Chennai:  When it performs at Chennai’s St Mary’s Church for the Sunday Service on March 19, the Yale Schola Cantorum (Schola), Yale University’s internationally renowned chamber choir, will highlight an important bond forged with India over a wedding that took place more than 300 years ago.

It was in this oldest Anglican church east of the Suez and the oldest British building in India, in 1680, that a certain Elihu Yale married Catherine Hynmer - the first wedding to be performed in the church.

Yale, a vestryman (church committee member) and treasurer of St Mary’s, was an American-born British merchant with the East India Company. He came to India in 1672 and went on to become governor at Fort St. George, the company’s post at Madras. On his return to England he donated 417 books, a portrait of King George I, and goods worth £800 (about Rs 65,000 now) to the Collegiate School of Connecticut, which was then renamed Yale in his honour.

Schola begins its tour of India from March 12 to 19, holding performances in Delhi, Mumbai, and Chennai. It performs sacred music from the sixteenth century to the present day in concert settings and choral services around the world.

Sponsored by the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, Schola is conducted by David Hill, one of Europe’s leading conductors who has been chief conductor of the BBC Singers, musical director of the Bach Choir, and Master of the Music at Winchester and Westminster Cathedrals in UK. He has a discography of over a hundred recordings and has been on the Yale faculty since 2013.

The choir is open to all Yale students, including undergraduates and graduate students in all disciplines and professional schools. Most of them are selected by audition at the beginning of the academic year in September. They do not get credits but are paid stipends. About 30 of them will be coming to India on the India tour.

Source: Hindustan Times

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