As a child, Anjali Chudasama didn’t think of her family as particularly musical. After all, none of them were professionals. Sure, her mother sang in her church choir, and practiced her alto part during car rides. And yes, her grandparents led the family in singing evening prayers. But wasn’t that what everybody did? It was only in adulthood that she realized how unusual this was, especially the evening prayers; other Indian-American households didn’t do this. In India, from which her father and grandparents emigrated, music is based primarily on melody rather than harmony, so there is no choral tradition. Before journeying to the U.S., Anjali’s grandparents had been involved with the Gandhi Ashram (also known as Sabarmati Ashram). The liturgy sung there was created from a combination of Hindu, Jain, Sufi Muslim, and Christian poems and hymns, meant to foster a tradition of national unity. The Mahatma greatly valued musical education as part of his movement, and wrote “Music must get a place in our efforts at popular awakening”.
Anjali learned early the importance of representative role models. Despite her love of singing and participation in choirs throughout her youth, she didn’t initially consider music education as a career option. All her early directors and music teachers had been men who used classroom humor to bond with the students, something young Anjali couldn’t envision herself doing. Then, during her junior year of high school, she participated in an honor choir led by Dr. Amanda Quist, who presented a very different image as an educator, with a focus on understanding the history and theory of music. This was the sort of teaching that Anjali could see herself doing.
The new path that had opened up for Anjali led her to Wheaton College, where she found a supportive mentor in Dr. John Trotter. Dr. Trotter gave her early opportunities to hone her conducting skills within the college; his innovative program that took performances to homeless shelters and the state prison had a huge impact on her view of music education.
After college, Anjali further refined what she’d learned from Dr. Trotter as she taught at an urban middle school, worked with a chorus of retirees, and led a chorus of women who saw music as a way to pursue social justice. In these and other jobs, she learned from her students how music speaks to people with widely varied life experiences. By meeting students where they were, she could lead them to the new musical skills and experiences that would feed their souls.
Now graduate school has brought Anjali to Seattle. She was excited to find a position in a choir with “community” right there in its name. It is a term with many levels of meaning; we draw our membership from the community at large, rather than from within a specific school or church. In joining the choir, we form a community that works together to learn music and put on shows, drawing on impressive resources and varied skills to fill all the necessary roles on stage, behind the scenes, and in administrative positions. We give back to the surrounding communities with the entertainment we create and the service we offer: over the decades, Choir of the Sound has done many food, toy, and aid drives, given scholarships to college bound students, and founded a choir camp. With Anjali’s leadership added to our artistic staff, the ways we strengthen our community bonds – internally and externally – will surely grow.
Welcome to Choir of the Sound, Anjali Chudasama! We are happy to sing with you, to grow with you, and to see where music takes our community from here.
