IN HARMONY

Our Strings of Hope Concert Tour featured in the Serenade Magazine - India’s first Western Classical Music online magazine.  We featured in the May 2024 issue of the National Centre of the Performing Arts (NCPA) Mumbai’s magazine, OnStage in relation to the music exposure tour of six of our students in February.  A quartet from the Symphony Orchestra of India (SOI) spent four days performing at assembly and giving masterclasses to over 30 selected students from Classes 7 to 10 and alumni. The impact was enhanced because our alumnus and member of the SOI, Sujan Chettri was part of the quartet.  Four of our alumni musicians accompanied the Assistant Director Virgil Vihaan Sequeira to give a workshop on the cultural music of Kalimpong and environmental justice in the Hills at the Conscious Leadership Retreat of Vision & Opportunities for Youth & Community Engagement (VOYCE), Delhi, at Tieedi Forest Garden, Sonada.  We bid farewell to our retiring support staff, Bhagat Singh Darj

  May was a month of notable achievements. One, the GASChorus, Musician and Dancers from Xavier Sangeetanjali and Young Musicians from Delhi and Mumbai toured with the GASOrchestra for a week presenting one-hour-long concerts at Siliguri, Kurseong, Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Gangtok as part of the Strings of Hope Concert Tour. The project was a powerful union of two of our projects - Strings Concert Tour Project (started in 2011 by the then Music volunteer Virgil Vihaan Sequeira at St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai) and the Hope Choral Project (started in 2023 by Belgian conductor Rozemarijn Vanwijnsberghe). We are indebted to our organisers in each location - Fr. Edu Arockiaraj SJ and Fr. Tommy SJ at Matigara, Fr. Kevin Moktan SJ and his team at St. Alphonsus, Mr. Cassian Dukpa, Ms Dipika Adhikari and the team at Hayden Hall, Br. Gilbert and our school team at Kalimpong and Mrs. Laxmi Rai Gurung and her staff at Tashi Namgyal Academy and Ms. Sharolyn Zimba at Gangtok. Fr. Provincial kindly

The GASChorus, Musician and Dancers from Xavier Sangeetanjali and Young Musicians from Delhi and Mumbai toured with the GASOrchestra for a week presenting one-hour-long concerts at Siliguri, Kurseong, Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Gangtok as part of the Strings of Hope Concert Tour. The project was a powerful union of two of our projects - Strings Concert Tour Project (started in 2011 by the then Music volunteer Virgil Vihaan Sequeira at St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai) and the Hope Choral Project (started in 2023 by Belgian conductor Rozemarijn Vanwijnsberghe). We are indebted to our organisers in each location - Fr. Edu Arockiaraj SJ and Fr. Tommy SJ at Matigara, Fr. Kevin Moktan SJ and his team at St. Alphonsus, Mr. Cassian Dukpa, Ms Dipika Adhikari and the team at Hayden Hall and Fr. Edward Baretto at Darjeeling, Br. Gilbert and our school team at Kalimpong and Mrs. Laxmi Rai Gurung and the staff at Tashi Namgyal Academy and Ms. Sharolyn Zimba at Gangtok. The tour has had an impact beyon