Children’s choir from Chennai invited to US

Chennai Children’s Choir (CCC), the three-year-old initiative, which was started by Sriram Ayer of the Nalandaway Foundation has grown from strength to strength since their inception, becoming one of the city’s shining lights – causing the musical fraternity to endear to them. 

Now, its time for the kids to take their talent globally – on a platform where choirs from all over the world will witness them. 

“They are the only children’s group in fact; all the others are professional adult music choirs. It involved a series of rigorous interviews to be selected, and the kids are thrilled. Some of them are more excited about the flight to USA than actually performing! We have kids with special needs and who are visually-challenged; it’s a big deal for them,” explains Sriram. 

Being the year of Nelson Mandela’s 100th birth anniversary, the event between June 24 and July 5 is themed to be around unity, peace and justice. “The kids are already training for a number of performances, that will culminate at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC. Songs of composers like Tagore and Bharathi, etc, promoting the right message, as well as in different languages, will lend diversity and culture to the act,” says Sriram.CCC is mentored by Manjula Ponnapalli and Vedanth Bharathwaj, who train and direct the group. But now, they have started a crowd-finding campaign to raise money for their air travel, food and accommodation – which totals to around Rs 33 lakhs for the 23 children who are travelling to the US. Sriram says, “We have already raised close to around Rs 10 lakhs and are hoping we hit our target before June. This is a great opportunity for the kids to not only showcase their talent, but also meet other musicians, collaborate with them and be exposed to world culture.”