It was a pleasant surprise to enjoy the artistry of talented youngsingers at the Soul Sounds In The Name of Love concert, and to express appreciation of the performance by the Intermediate Choir of The Soul Sounds – individually or as a whole as a choir. It was totally unexpected considering the fact that there was something like 23 items in the programme – each artiste complementing the other with no fluffs whatsoever. A packed audience at the Russian Cultural Centre on February 23 no doubt enjoyed themselves. And we told ourselves “its a pity that we in Sri Lanka do not have a Simon Cowell to pick out a voice for promotion globally”.
To come back to the concert it was amazing how well and familiar the participants were with the pop hits of today as well as with the well known ones of yesteryear. Then winning hits of Elvis Presley, Whitney Houston, Elaine Page and Barbara Dickson, Bonnie Tyler, Bill Withers, Merle Haggard, Lauren Daigle, Bette Midler, All-4-One, Christina Aguilera, Cold Play, Shane Filan, Meghan Trainor, Christina Perri, George Benson, Sam Smith, Olivia Newton John, the Frank Sinatra’s immortal hit written by Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields, Celine Dion, Pink, the latest award winning song by Lady GaGa and Bradley Cooper for the film A Star Is Born and the rousing finale Starship’s anthem Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now proved that the Intermediate Choir of Soul Sounds was not just another choir but a choir made up of young girls and boys who were totally dedicated to the spirit and mood of the songs sung by them.
As a choir singing together their choral clarity was excellent and so were the singers when they performed individually. They captured the essence of the hit songs, telling the stories through their renditions, and they reached out to the audience with a high level of professionalism between songs and successfully connected the music to each other.
The singers sailed through intricate arrangements of songs by Christina Perri, Pink, Bonnie Tyler, Coldplay to name a few, which undoubtedly was well rehearsed by their director Soundarie David Rodrigo, so that the delivery sounded relaxed. The choir’s entrances and exits were well controlled, in short their level of professionalism between songs was high, and even so when they were not performing.
With Soundarie David Rodrigo at the piano, playing and conducting the choir and Shane John at the drums and guitar, In the Name of Love by the Intermediate Choir of Soul Sounds was a memorable performance, worthy of a repeat. If you missed it – then blame yourself.
