Our Lady Of Dolours Church

The parish choir or the Senior choir as it is more commonly known was started way back in the late 1950s and was named the St. Cecilia Choir. It started under the baton of Fr. George Fernandes, the well-known musician in the archdiocese of Bombay. He was succeeded by a number of choir directors, like Fr Thomas D'Mello, Fr. Tony D'Souza, followed by lay person Adelaide Vaz, who was a choir member since 1963 and who took over as director from Fr. Thomas D'Mello, on the request of the then parish priest, Fr. Roque Almeida.

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The choir is fortunate to have as our organist, Ms. Marina Frank, a versatile qualified LTCL Musician, assisted by Mr. Martino Ferrao for the parish Eucharistic celebrations.

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At present we have 15 members in the choir, who dedicate their voices to praise the Lord. The choir makes it a point to sing hymns appropriate for the season and in keeping with the theme of the liturgical celebrations. It also endeavours to see that there is congregational participation, by distributing books or sheets of paper with the hymns. Choir practices are held at least once a week. The choir sings at the 9.30 a.m. Mass on Sundays, for all the major novenas and feasts in the parish, and at the Christmas Midnight mass, and at the Holy Triddum Services at the Cross Maidan. The choir sings hymns in a number of languages on occasions, besides English, also in Konkani, Hindi, Marathi and Gujarati. They also sing at weddings and funeral masses on request.

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Besides the Senior choir, there is Junior choir, under the leadership of Ms. Marina Frank. The children range from class III to X. They are well-trained at the practices they have every Saturday evening.  They sing at the children's mass at 8.30 a.m. every Sunday, at the Novena for the Birthday of Mother Mary and at the first Holy Communion Mass.

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The parish has a youth choir, with Aldrich at the keyboard. The youth sing at the 10.30 a.m. Mass on Sundays and for the Tridum and feast of Sts. Anne and Joachim.

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The parish has a konkani choir led by Ms. Suzanne Fernandes at the keyboard. They sing regularly at the 7.30 a.m. Mass on Sundays. Mr. Savio D’Silva plays the keyboard and leads the group singing at the 5.00 p.m. Mass on Sundays. There is also Ms. Alana Fernandes who supports the Liturgical celebrations by playing the keyboard at weekday masses.