"Creating more interest among the audience on choral music is my primary objective," began Kalyani Nair when asked about the reason why she founded The Indian Choral Ensemble (TICE) along with musician and orchestrator Karthik Manickavasakam.
Kalyani, who is a musician herself, heads the 50-member-strong choir that will be performing two shows under the banner Ulaa Pogum Neram this Sunday at Medai - The Stage in Alwarpet. The team will perform 18 songs, most of which are original compositions of the musical outfit.
"TICE was formed just before the Covid-19 pandemic happened. But we kept the group, which was small back then with about 15 voices, alive nonetheless. After the lockdowns were lifted, more and more people started showing interest in joining the group, due to which I too got immensely motivated and began writing more original compositions," she continued.
TICE has held two shows this year and speaking about the upcoming one, Kalyani said, "For this particular show, 40 voices will be performing. There are two shows back-to-back and the experience will be different for both sets of audiences due to the different sets of instruments -- the first one will use guitars, while the second will have keyboard and drums -- we use.
"We've been practicing for three months for this event. We keep in mind that we have to maintain the sensibilities of local music along with how the choir structure works," Karthik chimed in, having been silent all this while. "A choir is like a symphony, but just with voices. Our choir is one of a kind because our songs comprise Indian ragas and most of our singers know when to switch between Carnatic style singing and using the choral tone," he added.
Kalyani said she will also be using the stage to announce something rather important for her and the choir. "Starting July, we will release three songs this year and an announcement about the same will be made at the show. We will be performing the songs at the show as well," she stated.
While planning for the future does entail challenges, the co-founder of TICE is proud of the fact that the group is already multilingual, their compositions are performed in Tamil, Malayalam and Hindi, which opens them up to a wider audience. "Language is not a barrier for us," smiles Kalyani who wants to have more voices as she believes there is a magic to a large vocal ensemble.
Karthik and Kalyani know that choral music is still considered niche in the music industry, specifically in south India. "There is not much space for choir in our art scene right now. A choir which can sing Carnatic, Hindustani, Western and Indian Pop is rare," Karthik said, while Kalyani added, "People are not exposed to choral music and we want to spread awareness about it."
When asked what their primary objectives are, Kalyani said, "Coming out with more original compositions and in general creating more interest among the audience on choral music are my two primary objectives." As for Karthik, he had a more vibrant answer. "We are looking forward to showing people what choral music is and who we are and make a wave. We want to perform to a larger audience and share the delight that is choral music with a lot more people," he declared.