Within the early Seventies it wasn’t uncommon for folks to overlook their bus at a cease beside a church within the Bay of Bengal on the east coast of India. This had nothing to do with the buses being early or late and all to do with the choir on the Emmanuel Methodist Church within the metropolis of Chennai.
Despite the years which have handed since Dr Sunil Paulraj was an 11-year-old member of that congregation, from his house in Belfast he recollects this childhood reminiscence.
“The Christian inhabitants in India is small and there's a lot of interplay between completely different denominations. On the time, this church had a really excellent choir,” he says.
“There was a bus cease close by and folks stopped of their tracks to pay attention once they heard the massed voices, typically forgetting to board the bus they had been planning to get.
“As a small boy sitting on a pew inside, I dreamt of the day after I can be sufficiently old to develop into a chorister.”
What younger Sunil couldn't have imagined was how the achievement of this ambition and his lifetime love of singing and music would someday make an influence on hundreds of lives, altering them irrevocably for the higher.
This may come three a long time later after his medical coaching in Bangalore, stints as a health care provider in Indian mission hospitals in Orissa, one of many poorest tribal belts in India, the Maldives, and eventually in 2002, the Royal Maternity Hospital in Belfast the place he's nonetheless primarily based and works as a neonatal specialist.
Sunil describes his work within the mission hospitals as one of the vital fulfilling durations of his life.
He regards it as essential to his improvement as a health care provider and says it additionally additional enhanced his appreciation of music.
“We labored with only a few sources. Lots of the sufferers couldn't afford to pay the hospital and we regularly did main surgical procedures for as little as £10 to £20.
“Fortunately some Danish missionaries supported the work, and we had a beautiful surgeon referred to as Dr Henry who impressed a era of docs and nurses.
“He had a beautiful bass voice, and he sang as he carried out his surgical procedures, and I typically assisted him.”
Probably this mission work performed an element in his compulsion to behave following the tsunami that shook southeast Asia in December 2004. He instantly made preparations to return house to Bangalore to do his bit for the victims of this devastating pure catastrophe. Initially, Sunil partnered with a neighborhood radio station and staged a live performance to lift funds.
The success of this occasion planted the seed that a yr later had grown to develop into the musical group Toccata. From the Italian, toccare, it means ‘to the touch’ and in addition refers to a virtuoso piece of music requiring a lightness of contact.
For the final 17 years the group based by Sunil has embodied the virtues of touching lives and giving again to society, one live performance at a time, at venues right here and throughout southern Asia.
Based mostly in Belfast, Toccata now has round 100 members from skilled skilled and semi-professional backgrounds. They've carried out with artists Dan Seals, Elton John, the Kenyan Boys Choir and Indian maestro, Ilayaraja.
The soloists have triumphed in lead roles in West Finish productions of musicals that embrace The Lion King, The Phantom of the Opera, Sundown Boulevard and Warfare Horse.
Within the final 10 years Toccata has earned a repute for excellence and innovation and has develop into one of many UK’s premier musical our bodies.
The ensemble rehearse at premises close to Belfast Metropolis Airport and Sunil is happy on the prospect of a tour to Tanzania in early 2023.
“Now we have been touring for a number of years and this explicit journey has been within the offing for fairly some time,” he says.
“We had been invited by Bishop Fredrick Shoo, the Evangelical Lutheran and Angelical Bishop of North Tanzania. With Covid, it was troublesome to plan something, however all being nicely, we’re set to journey there subsequent February.”
With that in thoughts, Toccata is actively in search of folks to hitch the group and include them on tour. Sunil is at pains to level out that neither the time dedication nor talent stage is prohibitive.
“We rehearse for round three hours each different Saturday. You don’t have to be a Freddie Mercury or Elton John, folks of all skills are welcome — these with a superb singing voice and equally toilet singers. Toccata is a really welcoming group.”
Sunil counts Belfast as house now. He loves the town, the climate and the folks. In his view, the truth that we regularly have 4 seasons in someday is a bonus.
When he’s not working and concerned with Toccata, he's a eager walker and sometimes, a jogger. He connects significantly with what he thinks of as a pleasant, fun-loving mentality, the notion of residing for at this time and never worrying an excessive amount of about tomorrow.
On the core of Toccata’s mindset is the spirit of giving. The idea is straightforward and highly effective — while you give, you obtain way more in return.
There's additionally a robust social and academic dimension throughout the group.
They collaborate with native choirs for worldwide concert events and facilitate cultural exchanges, creating on stage magic in consequence. A faculties initiative trains college students and supplies a platform for younger folks to carry out inside a full orchestral setting.
Designated as United Kingdom Cultural Ambassadors, Toccata is supported by British diplomatic posts within the nation of efficiency. Since its formation, the group has toured in 15 international locations and has an more and more massive fan base.
Toccata contributes to numerous beneficiaries within the host international locations by donating the gate income from exhibits and used medical gear to hospitals in want. Recipients embrace kids bothered by Aids in Zambia, the Soweto Good Samaritan Orphanage in Kenya, the Little Sisters of Poor, Reaching Hand Orphanage, U&I and Bishops Cotton College in Bangalore.
The Toccata medical wing has distributed decommissioned medical gear price over £3m to medical models in creating and third world international locations.
Members are inspired to develop their social consciousness by spending time with the assorted charities they assist. In Northern Eire, Toccata has staged concert events for Rotary Golf equipment, the Soroptimist Society, Mind Damage Issues, McCracken Memorial Church, Glenmachan Church of God and the Whitewell Tabernacle church.
The group’s mission assertion is threefold: rising by means of music, giving by means of music and bonding by means of music. Members take pleasure in worldwide publicity and there are alternatives to improvise, perceive completely different musical kinds and enchantment to world audiences by means of intercultural exchanges. Forging new partnerships is central to the Toccata lifestyle.
They've been profitable in bringing collectively folks from various backgrounds, faiths and races to carry out as one. The group takes pleasure in serving to to alleviate phobias, social ache and stigma, in addition to creating new friendships and offering lasting recollections. Whereas on tour and in between concert events, in addition they get the possibility to take pleasure in distinctive experiences like safaris, trekking, paragliding and rafting.
Carol Carson is a full-time grandmother and joined Toccata six years in the past after her husband died.
She says: “I used to be in search of a choir with a function. I’ve been on numerous excursions to completely different components of India and Kathmandu and have had probably the most unbelievable adventures.
“Singing is sweet for the soul and may contact the innermost depths of the center. If you be part of Toccata, you develop into a part of an in depth and caring household of singers.”
An alto soloist with the group, Emma Nugent from Newcastle joined seven years in the past and is grateful for the brand new associates she has made and the alternatives to journey.
“I’ve been fortunate sufficient to go to India and Nepal and the expertise has been breath taking at occasions. I’m additionally very excited to carry out right here in October this yr in a sequence of concert events. Toccata has allowed me to see components of the world that I may solely have dreamed about.”
On the finish of September and in early October Toccata will carry out in Lisburn, Dunmurry, Strabane, Enniskillen and Armagh in assist of varied charities.
In recognition of companies to humanity, the group has been the recipient of the United Nations Golden Rule award and can also be a member of the esteemed Kids for Peace initiative. Sunil is especially pleased with the Toccata Medical Mission.
He says: “That is the place we carry collectively docs and nurses who volunteer to share finest practices and the most recent developments within the area of medication by means of conferences and discussions. The medical mission has visited Kenya and India up to now and we've plans to take to it to many extra nations.”
Sunil is in little doubt that touring with Toccata is a life-changing expertise that can dwell lengthy within the reminiscence.
“Supporting people who find themselves much less lucky than ourselves, utilizing our abilities to offer one thing again to society creates an enormous buzz. New members who've travelled with Toccata up to now have mentioned that it's transformative and the sensation of being revitalised is tangible.”
Maybe one of the vital memorable excursions was to Zambia in 2008. After concert events in Lusaka, they set off for Livingstone to carry out at a lodge in assist of HIV-affected children. A ten-hour, 500km journey by means of dust and bush roads into the center of the nation was each an edifying and humbling expertise for the choir.
In stark distinction to the luxurious hospitality that had been prolonged to the group, now they had been witnessing the fact of life for a lot of Africans which included a every day wrestle for meals and water. The temper within the bus instantly modified. The provides that had been loaded to maintain the travelling maestros had been rapidly distributed to the ravenous folks alongside the route.
Lots of the crew didn't eat till they arrived on the vacation spot late that night time. Nearly all of that group are nonetheless members of the choir and folks whom Sunil regards as loyal performers.
Extra lately in 2018, Toccata toured in Nepal and India. They carried out for the kids at Mom Theresa’s orphanage in Kolkata and afterwards had been thanked profusely for the great expertise that they'd supplied.
Through the years Toccata has modified the lives of drug addicts, alcoholics and individuals who have gone by means of traumas, struggling unimaginable hardships.
“Our journeys and performances have proven us that we're among the many lucky few on this world who're blessed to have meals, clothes and shelter. It's due to this fact incumbent on us to share and provides what we are able to to assist those that don’t have the essential requirements of life,” Sunil says.
Mahatma Gandhi is commonly credited with this uplifting sentiment, ‘We have to be the change we wish to see on this planet’. It's a compelling conviction, epitomised gracefully by a Belfast group with an Italian identify and a common attain.
www.toccatamusicalproductions.com