Acapella brought to life with Revelations

Demi Hewamana

It's really amazing how this year is nearing a chapter to close the curtains for 2012 and draw another for 2013. One minute you find yourself singing Gangam Style and the next minute changing ringtones to Feliz Navidad or Jingle Bells.

Places all over Colombo have begun lighting up the Christmas trees, decorating their offices with colours of Christmas and bringing the Spirit of Christmas alive with music and merry making.

He is Christmas

I'm sure all of you are feeling it and I am feeling it very much each time I hear the carols coming from the stereos. Christmas is very much early this year and the very first carols were held last week by a group of amazing singers who really brought out the passion of Christmas through their voices.

This group of young and talented men are very well known not just in Sri Lanka but internationally as well and were ranked fourth in the world's Best Male Choir. They are none other than Revelations led by the ever so jovial choral director and one of the original members of the group - Sanjeev Jayaratne.

I got the chance to meet him over a cup of coffee and speak about the guys who changed the feel of music for many people and also witness a concert that truly blew me away and gave me goosebumps (good feel) through the entire night.

He is Christmas was their first ever full length Christmas show and it turned out to be best show I have been to so far. As the lights dimmed and young men walked into stage one could feel that this night was going to be unforgettable. Starting with a very slow acapella number "Angels we have heard on high" they got the crowd into the feel of Christmas very gently. Getting the chance to sit in the front row was the best experience for me. This gave me the chance to see how deep their emotions were when performing a song. When they sang Winter Wonderland, my mind actually drifted to the land of snow (which we lack), Jack Frost, reindeer and people enjoying Christmas with one another. They then picked up the beat with another acapella of Jingle Bells that got me and I'm sure everyone else in the swing of tapping and moving their feet.

Revelations singing with the Junior and Senior students from the Revelations Academy

Revelations singing with the Junior and Senior students from the Revelations Academy

It was really a pretty treat when the very juniors of the Revelations Academy got on stage with their brightest smiles to perform When a Child is Born and taking the crowd back in time of the days they studied about Jesus and His life. And this is exactly what you want to feel when you surrounded by good music - to be able to live and bring the music to life no matter where you are. They brought so much feeling and life into every carol they sang and the moment they got the juniors from the Revelations Academy to sing with them Someday at Christmas, it made me feel like we were at an Orchestra putting our hands together and singing to bring ever lasting peace and happiness to the children and people of the world. Bringing the other classics like Santa Claus is Coming to Town, Rudolph the Red Rose Nosed Reindeer, White Christmas and of course how can I forget my all time favourite Oh Holy Night got the crowd into singing it as well. It was then one good carol after another leading the stage to an amazing conclusion of O Happy Day, Hallelujah and of course Feliz Navidad with the full cast making the crowd give a standing ovation and scream Encore over and over again after the last three performances.

Sanjeev told me that they never got the chance to do a full length concert before because Christmas was always a busy time for them, but after watching them perform that day, I'm sure they will make it a regular one from the coming year onwards.

The Beginning

The group began with around 24 guys from St Thomas in 1994 and today after most of them 'grew up' and started their lives, the cast has shrunk to eight amazing talented young men with Sanjeev and Divakha being the only two original members. The youngest being somewhere in the 20s to the oldest being over 50 these guys are truly are one of a kind with one doing studies and the rest doing jobs such as banking, marketing, business analyst and architecture.

"Mahen Pieris's cousin sang with the group Purple Rain and he wanted a choir to sing at his wedding. And then there, Damien was impressed with us and he asked us to sing backing for them. It was after this we decided to do shows and my friends and my brother and his friends who are senior to us got together. When people asked us what is the name of the band, we thought about it and then at that time there was a gospel group called Genesis and we thought why not be Revelations...", a happy Sanjeev adds. Through time, the guys moved to acapella, beat boxing and harmony types of songs with pop stuff as well. With their music being recognized everywhere, the choir participated in many competitions and they are the only choir in Sri Lanka and South Asia to win the title World Champion in 2008 at the world choir games in the Gospel and Spiritual and Male Voice Ensemble categories and a won a silver for the Popular Choral Music category.

Sanjeev went on to say how he trained the Visakha Vidyala choir and 20 girls who went to Malaysia and became the first girls school to win a Gold Diploma in 2010. Then he took the Methodist choir to Vietnam last year and they won in Youth Choir of Equal Voices and won a silver diploma for Sacred Music.

Speaking on the academy, Sanjeev began it in 2008 and there are 100 students and it's located down Terrence Avenue in Mount Lavinia.

The teachers are Dilumi Perera, Rebecca, Krishan who do drama and Sanjeev's Mum teaches Art while his wife takes care of the administrative and marketing. Sanjeev in his real professional life is in the IT industry.

Together with Sanjeev Jayaratnam the rest of the 'boys' are Enaksha Fernando, Michael Quyn, Gyles Dharmaratne, Hiran Seram, Ashan Algama, Willie Godridge and Sanoj de Mel. The team is backed up with music by Niranjan de Silva (organist), Christopher Prince (drums) and Dharshi Edwards (pianist).

The guys will be performing at Nelum Pokuna on December 17 and this time to everyone who has missed out on this amazing talented bunch - Don't Miss It!