 
Mahes Perera
It was an unusual experience for
the ten voices of the acapella choir Revelations to be singing with
microphones from a swimming pool. But they did it with a lot of finesse
at the entertainment in connection with the ‘Welcome to Cinnamon
Lakeside Colombo’ recently.
“The night was windy and we had no wind sheets on our mikes and we
were wondering whether our audiences were disturbed by the hiss sounds
but no they didn’t react that way. They in fact enjoyed themselves as
they thronged the new lounge to be a part of the experience” comments
Sanjeev Jayaratnam who handles all the musical arrangements of the choir
Revelations.
 The all male choir are now an acknowledged name in the music scene
what with them being in the 6th position in the World Male Choir
listings. The group won two championships at the World Choir Games 2008
in the Gospel and Spiritual Category and Male Vocal Category.
Was your programme on that day all gospel items?
“No. We included well-known pop songs plus Barber Shop favourites
like Dream a Little Dream, Ain’t Misbehaving and I’m Into Something
Good. We sang Moon Dance which went down very well and Paul Simon’s Late
In The Evening. We switched to Beatles favourites which always have an
enjoyable reaction from our audiences and of course our gospel
favourites that were all well received, by our fans at the Welcome to
Cinnamon Lakeside.
Speaking with Sanjeev Jayaratnam we learnt about their future
appearances in their calendar of events. With the season moving in quite
fast, the Revalations’ schedule is getting tighter.
“Our big thing will be the Thanksgiving Service on October 4 to
commemorate our gold and silver medal win in Austria. It’s an open
concert and we hope all our fans will be with us on that day. But the
bigger surprise will be our Christmas Concert which we intend to stage
on December 5 at the Ananda College, Auditorium. We are putting our
heads together to pull off a memorable one for 2009” reveals Sanjeev.
There is no doubt that the Revelations are endowed with abundunt
creativity and energy to put across their songs to an audience that
looks forward to their magnificent harmony in the acapella idiom. There
aren’t many choirs attempting to take a leaf from their books, despite
the fact that talent is not lacking in our country. |
