Yale Schola Cantorum (Schola), a chamber choir open by audition to students from across all of Yale University’s departments and professional schools, will tour India March 12 – 19, with public performances in Delhi, Mumbai, and Chennai. They will also take part in the Sunday service at historic St. Mary’s Church in Chennai.
It is sponsored by Yale Institute of Sacred Music (ISM) and conducted by David Hill; Masaaki Suzuki is principal guest conductor. In addition to performing regularly in New Haven and New York, the ensemble records and tours nationally and internationally. Schola’s recordings appear on the Delos, Gothic, and Naxos labels. The group has previously performed on tour in England, Hungary, France, China, South Korea, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Singapore, Russia, Estonia, and Latvia.
Reena Esmail, Yale Graduate
Schola will tourwith early music ensemble Juilliard415, and Schola’s principal conductor David Hill will lead performances of J.S. Bach’s Magnificat in D, instrumental works by Rameau, Telemann, and Bach, and the premiere performances of a newly-commissioned work by the Indian American composer Reena Esmail, a graduate of both Yale and Juilliard. Esmail’s work embraces both the Western and Hindustani (North Indian) classical music idioms. In 2011-2012 she was a recipient of a Fulbright-Nehru grant, and moved to Delhi, where she was affiliated with the Faculty of Music and Fine Arts at Delhi University and studied Hindustani vocal music with Gaurav Mazumdar. Esmail was selected as a 2011 INK Fellow to speak about her work at the INK Conference (in association with TED) in Jaipur, and throughout India.