arthra
Baha'i
From the Midwest to Mumbai
From the Midwest to Mumbai: Baha'i Choir Returns from India
July 2, 2010 - 1:31pm On Monday, June 28, singer Emily Price, stepped off a plane at Chicago’s O’Hare airport and after twenty hours of travel she headed straight for rehearsal with the city’s Grant Park Chorus. While she sight-read French choral music and withstood fatigue, images of India danced in her head.
Emily spent the previous sixteen days in India, as assistant conductor of The Voices of Baha Choir. The choir sang in locations like the National Center for the Performing Arts in Mumbai, the world’s largest school in Lucknow and at the Baha'i House of Worship in Delhi (also known as the Lotus Temple).
Voices of Baha Choir at the Baha'i Temple in Delhi. Photo courtesy of Peggy Lemmey Borell
The singers, nearly 120 in total, came from 18 countries around the world, including Germany, Australia and several Asian nations. Emily says, “you can see on stage the concept of every single person coming from all over the world, coming together no matter what language they speak and singing together. It shows how diverse the world is.”
Emily reports that the choir “celebrates cultural differences in a way that is unified and beautiful, with everyone being focused together,” which has an impact on audience and choir members alike.
The Voices of Baha choir experiences that unity on and off stage. Emily describes choir tours like family reunions, with the thrill of intimate friends reconnecting and where newcomers are simply embraced as new family members.
The choir first came together in 1992, when they sang at Carnegie Hall in New York City as part of a series of events commemorating the centenary of the passing of Baha’u’llah, the Founder of the Baha'i Faith.
Soon after the Carnegie Hall concert Emily’s father, Tom Price, began to assemble international tours. Emily says, “It’s something that’s skyrocketed since then.” There are now 1,200 names on a roster of people who have at some point toured with The Voices of Baha.
Emily Price on Tour of India This summer’s trip to India was the choir’s fourteenth tour. Emily has been on all but one, starting at age 12. She says, “the point has always been to share music with people all over the world, to give the gift of music.” The choir takes its inspiration from Baha’u’llah's description of music “as a ladder for your souls, a means whereby they may be lifted up unto the realm on high.” Emily reports many audience members came up to her after their shows and talked about feeling uplifted by the music.
During this year’s Indian tour, the audience members weren’t the only ones experiencing a spiritual high. Emily’s favorite part of the trip was listening to three singers from India who joined the choir as soloists. Emily describes one of them, a man named A**** Desai, as especially riveting as he performed Baha’u’llah’s words in a traditional Indian improvisational style.
“Each time he sang, he did it differently. I really craved that part of the concert,” Emily says.
After some of the shows Mr. Desai would praise Emily for her own solos “He’d say there’s ‘no way I can do what you do!’ And I would say ‘are you kidding me?’ I could never do what you do!”
For Emily, the most memorable concert was the tour’s final one, in the prayer hall of the Baha’i House of Worship in Delhi. She says this destination inspired many people in the choir to sign on for the journey.
Throughout the tour, Voices of Baha sang music originally composed by famed Indian sitar player Ravi Shankar in 1986 specifically for the dedication of the Indian Baha'i House of Worship. Emily’s father, Tom, directed the Western choir for the 1986 ceremony. The songs had not been performed since then.
The Desai Family performs with Voices of Baha
Emily says “It was a full circle moment,” to sing Shankar’s arrangements in the same spot the music was last performed. Emily says performing there, “took me out of myself.”
This week Emily returns to her regular gig, performing with the Grant Park Chorus in Chicago. She is classically trained in vocal music and musical theater at Northwestern University. Her other day jobs have included performing in the Chicago Lyric Opera and the casts of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and Respect: A Musical Journey of Women.
From the Midwest to Mumbai: Baha'i Choir Returns from India
July 2, 2010 - 1:31pm On Monday, June 28, singer Emily Price, stepped off a plane at Chicago’s O’Hare airport and after twenty hours of travel she headed straight for rehearsal with the city’s Grant Park Chorus. While she sight-read French choral music and withstood fatigue, images of India danced in her head.
Emily spent the previous sixteen days in India, as assistant conductor of The Voices of Baha Choir. The choir sang in locations like the National Center for the Performing Arts in Mumbai, the world’s largest school in Lucknow and at the Baha'i House of Worship in Delhi (also known as the Lotus Temple).
Voices of Baha Choir at the Baha'i Temple in Delhi. Photo courtesy of Peggy Lemmey Borell
The singers, nearly 120 in total, came from 18 countries around the world, including Germany, Australia and several Asian nations. Emily says, “you can see on stage the concept of every single person coming from all over the world, coming together no matter what language they speak and singing together. It shows how diverse the world is.”
Emily reports that the choir “celebrates cultural differences in a way that is unified and beautiful, with everyone being focused together,” which has an impact on audience and choir members alike.
The Voices of Baha choir experiences that unity on and off stage. Emily describes choir tours like family reunions, with the thrill of intimate friends reconnecting and where newcomers are simply embraced as new family members.
The choir first came together in 1992, when they sang at Carnegie Hall in New York City as part of a series of events commemorating the centenary of the passing of Baha’u’llah, the Founder of the Baha'i Faith.
Soon after the Carnegie Hall concert Emily’s father, Tom Price, began to assemble international tours. Emily says, “It’s something that’s skyrocketed since then.” There are now 1,200 names on a roster of people who have at some point toured with The Voices of Baha.
Emily Price on Tour of India This summer’s trip to India was the choir’s fourteenth tour. Emily has been on all but one, starting at age 12. She says, “the point has always been to share music with people all over the world, to give the gift of music.” The choir takes its inspiration from Baha’u’llah's description of music “as a ladder for your souls, a means whereby they may be lifted up unto the realm on high.” Emily reports many audience members came up to her after their shows and talked about feeling uplifted by the music.
During this year’s Indian tour, the audience members weren’t the only ones experiencing a spiritual high. Emily’s favorite part of the trip was listening to three singers from India who joined the choir as soloists. Emily describes one of them, a man named A**** Desai, as especially riveting as he performed Baha’u’llah’s words in a traditional Indian improvisational style.
“Each time he sang, he did it differently. I really craved that part of the concert,” Emily says.
After some of the shows Mr. Desai would praise Emily for her own solos “He’d say there’s ‘no way I can do what you do!’ And I would say ‘are you kidding me?’ I could never do what you do!”
For Emily, the most memorable concert was the tour’s final one, in the prayer hall of the Baha’i House of Worship in Delhi. She says this destination inspired many people in the choir to sign on for the journey.
Throughout the tour, Voices of Baha sang music originally composed by famed Indian sitar player Ravi Shankar in 1986 specifically for the dedication of the Indian Baha'i House of Worship. Emily’s father, Tom, directed the Western choir for the 1986 ceremony. The songs had not been performed since then.
The Desai Family performs with Voices of Baha
Emily says “It was a full circle moment,” to sing Shankar’s arrangements in the same spot the music was last performed. Emily says performing there, “took me out of myself.”
This week Emily returns to her regular gig, performing with the Grant Park Chorus in Chicago. She is classically trained in vocal music and musical theater at Northwestern University. Her other day jobs have included performing in the Chicago Lyric Opera and the casts of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and Respect: A Musical Journey of Women.
