Mosaica Singers warming up to bring harmony, humour to holiday season

AMMAN — Mosaica, Jordan’s award-winning vocal ensemble, is set and ready to go for a series of four concerts to take place in Amman at Al Shams Theatre on December 5, 6, 7 and 8. 

The 43-member choir has been rehearsing their new programme since early September, as explained to The Jordan Times by the artistic director and co-founder of the group, Mercedes Alonso.

In addition to their known attributes of pure talent, refined taste and highly professional preparation and interpretation of the works they choose to sing, Mosaica also shows a good sense of humour by adding a witty, rather unusual tagline to the upcoming event: “A concert with a whole lotta misunderstanding!” As for the main title, it is simply “Mosaica, the Christmas Chapter”.

Earlier this year, the ensemble made Jordan proud. Mosaica’s Chamber Choir, a subset of the group, competed at the ChoirFest Middle East 2019 held in the UAE and won the first place prize for “Choir of the Year”. 

Mosaica Singers is a member of the newly formed Arab Choral Network. Alonso told The Jordan Times that they are also “… planning to perform in Europe, hopefully sometime next year, perhaps in Spain”.

Attending a rehearsal of Mosaica is an exhilarating experience: You enjoy a daring blend of several songs made into one, original harmonies and time signatures, and an exquisite mix of Arabic and English lyrics, in a smart and fair 50-50 proportion. 

If you think you’ve heard Christmas carols before, you will have to think the whole thing over after listening to Mosaica’s own rendition of the genre.

Musical Director and Co-founder Nedy Muna does a particularly good job at conducting the singers through the set of traditional songs whose special, custom-made music arrangements have been written by Qussai Al Daker, Ayman Faza, Nareg Abajian and Yazan Jurf.

Ayyoub Tams, who is also one of the singers, will be the narrator of a story he wrote in Arabic, inspired by The Grinch, a fictional character created by Dr Seuss. It will be the guiding thread that will accompany the songs all throughout the performance.

Mosaica will be backed by a team of six seasoned musicians who are stars in their own right in Jordan: Yarob Smeirat on violin, Fadi Hattar on cello, Nareg Abajian on keyboard, Qussai Al Daker on guitar, Bassel Abu Khader on bass and Awwad Awwad on percussion.