It all began way back in 1982 when a motley group of 25-30 young boys and girls came together under the aegis of Fr Antonio Cotta (then an assistant parish priest at the Immaculate Conception Church, Panaji) to sing and make music together. And what beautiful music they made.
Called the Immaculata Singers (named after the church of Immaculate Conception in whose chancel the group was formed), the ensemble began as a regular church choir. “Slowly we began getting requests to sing for weddings and anniversary masses,” informs Claudia Vaz of Taleigao, adding that wherever they went, they received praise. This was of course a huge boost to this young bunch who soon began participating in the various singing competitions being held across the state.
Sometimes they did as many as three competition shows a day winning prizes amounting to thousands. “This we would put into a fund to be used for charitable purposes,” says Claudia divulging about the charities and the seminarian they supported. A small sum was then used for their annual picnic.
When Pope John Paul II visited Goa as part of his 10-day visit to India in August 1986, the Immaculata Choir had the rare opportunity of being a part of the papal choir.
Then Fr Cotta's transfer to Porvorim parish came through. And although the group continued to persevere without its able leader and conductor, life responsibilities got in the way and in 1990, the group disbanded. While some got married and moved to other parts of Goa, others moved out of the state completely. Until 2010 when Fr Cotta received a transfer to St Inez Church, Panaji as its parish priest. “In 2011, the Immaculata Singers got together once again to to commemorate their silver jubilee. We sang along with the Malaysian Children's Choir in a special Christmastime performance at St Inez, Navelim, and Mapusa,” informs Antonio Bosco Dias from Panjim, adding that the idea for the CD came about at this meeting. “We realised that 2015 would be 25 years since we disbanded and we wanted to do something for ourselves...something that would serve as a souvenir. A CD of our songs sounded like a great idea, basically because the chorale songs that we used to sing were very rare, even in those days.”
The members quickly got in touch with the other members, all of whom sounded enthusiastic. In August 2016, the Immaculata Singers began their rehearsals. “We would practice once a fortnight and some of our members would travel from as far as Navelim and Chinchinim and even Mumbai so as to make this CD a reality,” discloses Antonio. Called 'Root of Jesse', the Christmas carols audio CD of the Immaculata Singers (with the original singers from 33 years ago) was released at Panaji Church on December 2. Comprising on carols in four different languages (English, Konkani, Spanish and Latin (Gregorian), all the carols in the CD are sung in four voices. The Konkani carols are all original compositions by Fr Cotta who has also done the musical arrangement for the CD.
“I believe that God has played a huge part in this,” says Guilly Vaz from Panaji, “because to get together after 33 years is not easy. When I think of what we've done, only one thing comes to mind, the gospel hymn, “In his time.”
Yes truly, He does make all things beautiful (and possible) in his time.
while Claudia adds, “For the last three years, we have also been singing on the occasion of the feast of the Blessed Sacrament which happens at St Inez in November.”
Last year, the Immaculata Choir also had the honour of singing at the feast mass of St Francis Xavier on December 3 in Old Goa.
