The students of Wycherly International are bursting with excitement this Christmas. Their voices have been silent for too long since their last performance and this year they present to you The Voice of Christmas.
The Voice of Christmas is a musical production by an Old Joe's Choir member, Geethika Cooray, trained by the famous Francis De Almeida, together with the students of Wycherly International School. Being organized by the school's Student Christian Movement (SCM), they hope to donate the proceeds from this Christmas concert to the Maharagama Cancer hospital.
With the demise of a well loved music teacher, Ruwani Seimon, their music too, died down. However, the SCM teacher-in-charge, Ms. Sujatha Karunaratne and the president of the movement, Gyles Dharmaratne have rekindled the spirit of music in the children to perform during the month of Christmas amid exams, extra classes, cultural shows and swimming meets.
The show involves 150 children, from the junior, intermediate and senior schools singing the good old carols and the song "Tears in Heaven" as a tribute to Ms. Seimon. They also have a solo and a duet by the children planned for the event. The accompanists for the performance will be Heshan Thambimuttu on drums, Organ - Shamal De Silva on the organ and Johann Peiris on the piano.
For Geethika, finding time for his first production was a challenge especially when it came to getting the children together for practice and making time for his degree. He had a standard he wanted the students to achieve two months ago when he started, and now he finds that their voices have improved, with there being a "huge difference now." He added that his special thanks goes out to Peumi Rodrigo for her assistance in training "None of us have been singing for three to four years," said Thinethri Shakespeare, a senior choir member added, "we sounded like squeaky violins" before the training.
Ms. Karunaratne thinks that the best part of this show is the student representation from all races and religions, in this Christmas show.
The Voice of Christmas will take place on December 3 at the British School Auditorium. |
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