The Bangalore Men
Born and raised in Gothenburg, Sweden, singing has always been an integral part of my life. Having sung in the Gothenburg Boys’ Choir for 17 years, studied music theory and music history at the Conservatory of Gothenburg and singing for Prof. Gunnar Forshufvud and Maria Forsström, it was natural to also continue singing when I moved to Bangalore in 2006. During the years here, I have been closely associated with Neecia Majolly, being part of Madrigals Etc and other ensembles, as well as doing lieder concerts in Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai. Since 2015 I teach voice at Bangalore School of Music, where I also lead the newly founded ensemble, The Bangalore Men.
My driver for setting up The Bangalore Men, is really to promote the beautiful music written for male choirs, ranging from renaissance by composers such as Byrd, Tallis and Palestrina, to the romantic era, with Schubert’s vast production of male choruses as an immense source of inspiration. The choir today consist of 9 members, all with previous experience of singing in choir. We are coached by Maria Forsström (Sweden), and have high aspirations and a high pace in our rehearsal work. In February end, we had our very first performance, after just having had very few rehearsals together. The choir is really modelled to have maximum flexibility, We have two counter-tenors, who also sing first tenor, two second tenors , three first basses and two second basses. This gives us the possibility to sing both the old school medieval and renaissance pieces, as well as the more modern romantic songs, which calls for a TTBB-ensemble.
The choir is right now working with a program called A cappella through the ages, where we will present music ranging from the renaissance, through baroque to the romantic period. We collaborate with St Andrew’s Church in Bangalore and Notre Dame des Anges in Pondicherry, and the program features pieces by Bach, Palestrina, Byrd and Händel to mention a few. We are also singing at the opening of an art exhibition at the Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath in Bangalore in April, and it’s really exciting to be able to collaborate around various aspects of art!
I see this as a start of an exciting journey, with many more projects to come, all with the aspiration to spread high quality Western classical music in India, be humble towards the vast history of Indian classical music that exist and to always strive to find new ways of collaborating with artists, choirs and institutions throughout the country and abroad.
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The Bangalore Men will do a programme of a cappella music, ranging from renaissance music by Byrd and Tallis, through baroque by Händel and Bach to the romantic era and Franz Schubert. Three concerts will be held during April and May, in Bangalore and in Pondicherry.
