Christmas is nearly here! With just a little less than two weeks left for the joyous festival of Christmas, it isn't called the most wonderful time of the year for nothing. With people scurrying around to drag those Christmas trees out, hanging up the Christmas decorations all around and preparing some yummy sugary delights, the infectious merry spirit seems to be spreading far and wide. And what better way to add to it than by having children singing Christmas songs.
So with the hope of getting everyone into the Christmas mood, the Natal singers will be spreading the joy as they belt out some popular Christmas carols on December 14, 6.30 pm onwards at Sunaparanta-Goa Centre for the Arts, Panaji.
The choir which consists of 71 children in all has been put together by Nayantara Da Lima Leitao who has been holding this programme for the last five years. Nayantara has been training children to sing for many years now. “I used to be a part of a choir since I was 16 and participated in every contest and competition earlier. Post marriage though my focus was my children. However on my neighbours request I began training children to sing on a small scale at first and things progressed from there,” she says. Since then she trained children for competitions like Vem Cantar, an annual Portuguese singing competition and the Mando competitions. This time around her Christmas group which comprises of children in the age group of 5 to 18 years will be singing some popular carols as well as some new ones which they have learnt from Youtube. While they will be accompanied by Meyrick Fernandes on the keyboard and Lester D'Souza and Cicero Fernandes on the guitar, some of the tunes will be sung acapella.“The children will be singing in four voices i.e. Soprano, alto, tenor and bass. However we don't have many older boys in our group and hence our bass voice was falling short at first so I dragged a few boys d who are not regular singers in the group to make up for it,” says Nayantara laughing. Post this concert, the group will then be performing at Ekta organised by Sharada Mandir School. They also hope to do a show at the Panaji Church Square. All proceeds of the concert will go for charity.
QUOTES
It is the children who are the stars of this concert and although they get nothing out of it they are so excited about the show and also to be able to do something for charity. - Nayantara Da Lima Leitao, trainer
“ It's a cultural thing for us to sing carols since childhood and I think this is a great platform for the kids to bring in the Christmas spirit and also take the music to the streets and the world- Ana Pinto, parent
