Unsung heroes

The Strangers’ Choir is made up of people who have never sung together before and might never sing together again. The aim isn’t perfect notes; it’s doing something you love with someone you have at least one thing in common with. The harmony is just a bonus

- Gowri S

Medha Sahi's enthusiasm is infectious.

She hops, skips and jumps as she conducts her impromptu choirs.

In each city she sweeps through, she brings strangers together for a three-hour crash course in singing as a group. After their rehearsals are done, they perform for an audience of themselves and each other at the venue of the day: a Portuguese guesthouse in Goa, an art gallery in Chennai, a design store in Mumbai.

Sahi calls it The Strangers’ Choir and it is inspired, she says, by the New York-based Gaia Music Collective's one-day choir initiative, in which a few hundred strangers meet at a different iconic venue each time, to learn, rehearse and perform.

A musician and vocal coach from Mumbai, Sahi, 33, who now lives in Goa, got her popup choirs started in March. After performances featuring a total of 410 people across six cities (Goa, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi and Pune), she is now in the midst of “Season 2”.

Events were held in Mumbai on September 13 and 14, and in Gurugram yesterday. One will be held in Delhi today (September 21). Up next are Kolkata, Vadodara, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Kochi, over the next 10 weeks.

Each group sings a different tune. So far, these have included Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell’s Ain't No Mountain High Enough, Frode Fjellheim’s Vuelie, the theme song for the Frozen films, KT Tunstall’s Suddenly I See and Coldplay's Viva la Vida.

Sahi does this because she wants to demonstrate how music is really a gift that brings people together. It isn’t something to fear.