Soul Seekers, Bangalore
A Gospel music group, produced by Leila Alvares Lynn
In the Beginning ... For the last two decades, Bangalore has witnessed a revival of so called 'modern' choral music choirs. You would probably find some listed in my Bangalore Music pages.We have also been encouraged by the visits to  Bangalore by the American Gospel Group called the Celebrant Singers,
  Soul Seekers in Concert  
and at the same time there was a flood of excellent 'poetic' gospel music introduced by the Communion Singers, Hosanna and Integrity fellowships, where words were taken from the Psalms. A new form of gospel listening music came into vogue and more 'traditional' forms were retained by in the Churches. Today, even the more conservative Churches have succumbed to the new wave and allowed the singing of the new 'gospel' themes called 'Praise & Worship'. Not all the 'church going' people accept this modern dialogue and presentation of singing, but slowly they are being to enjoy the music, the lyrics of the Psalms, and the inspiration that the music brings out, reaching into the depths of the human being. In line with this, a group of young (and not so young) singers decided that they get together to give to people renderations of some of this music under the direction of Leila Alvares Lynn, who until then was also very involved in the production and bringing out musicals of the Broadway taste like ‘Joseph and his Technicolour Dreamcoat’, ‘Grease’, ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ and ‘My Fair Lady’ and lately 'Hello Dolly'.

Leila painstakingly put together a group of young people, and I was honoured that Leila should call me (the not so young) to play Bass for the group. The group was christened "Soul Seekers", but as there are many 'soul seekers' around the world that cover from motorcycle clubs to gospel groups, I modified it to  Soul Seekers, Bangalore to make the group more distinctive. The Singers of the group are Priya Mendens, Rinila Ramesh, Leila Alvares Lynn, Mark & Jude Lazaro, Neville DeNazareth, (Sam Periera) and Jacob Ninan (Sam took Jacob's place at the 1st Concert). The Musicians are Robin Colaco  ( lead / rhythm guitar ), Karan Joseph (keyboard / piano), Asha Saldanha ( keyboard / strings ), Vivek Menzel ( drums) , Ronnie Johnson ( bass guitar)

Clicking on the collage picture above would take you to different pages within the Soul Seekers site.

The first performance was on Sunday 27th June 2004, at the Good Shepherd Convent (old) Hall (near the Parlor), and we were encouraged by the turnout of people to listen to us. The hall was suitable for about 150 people comfortably seated, but over 400 turned up and they were sitting in the aisles, on the windows, in the outside passages, and around our feet, and nobody complained that they did not have enough, and it surely was an experience having an audience so close to you (the photographers could not move back to take a full view shot of the group because of the crowd!!). Having been through the experience of a 'soul seeking' audience, it was decided to hold the second concert on 19th September 2004 at St. Joseph's Boys' High School , old Concert Hall to accommodate more people then the last concert. As there was an electrical fault at the hall, we were given use of the New Concert Hall of the School by Fr. Michael John sj, the Principal of the School. That particular day there were many programs that clashed, but I feel we had about 300 - 400 people in the hall and balcony. I feel that we greatly improved in all dimensions to the previous concert. One point I need to explain is that we are not reproducing the songs as per the recordings, but present our own version and mood for each. The arrangements are a total of suggestions from all members of the group, and we believe that we need to have a rapport with our audience by setting up a two-way dialogue and encourage them to sing along, as we also put up a slide screen projection with the words.

We should be having a concert either at the end of the year or early next year, as many of the singers have previous commitments to other church choirs and hotel performances.
Please Keep in touch, fill in the feedback form after you go through the other pages, and we shall inform you when our next show date is.

Thanks for your visit,
Have a great day,
Ronnie , a Soul Seeker from Bangalore
Go to the Soul Seekers Photo Album

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