Absa rewards choir members |08 February 2023

Cutting a cake to celebrate the choir’s achievement

Absa Seychelles bank has thanked its staff who made up the company’s choir that was the overall winner of a local competition dubbed ‘Office Choir – Sing for Charity’ organised last year by the media house, Seychelles Broadcasting Corporation.

Each member received a letter of appreciation and a R1000 voucher during a short ceremony organised by the bank at Seypec House on Monday afternoon.

When addressing the staff, the bank’s managing director, Nazim Mahmood, thanked them for their hard work and said he was looking forward to their continued success.

“You have set a standard and you know with every standard what happens, you cannot go below that standard. So hopefully this year, it is going to be the same because you cannot become zero you have to remain number one,” he said.

The head of People Function at Absa Seychelles, Valerie Busetto, said the choir made the whole bank proud last year when they won the top prize and it was therefore fitting to thank them for their hard work and effort.

The 25-member choir was coordinated by popular local singer who is a staff at Absa Seychelles, Michelle Marengo, and the choir master was renowned chorist from the Mahé Chamber choir, Xavier Shamlaye.

Ms Marengo brought the team together in August where initially they rehearsed twice a week, under the guidance of Mr Shamlaye. This later increased to thrice weekly, closer to elimination and daily when they were nearing the final.

Mr Shamlaye said his first experience as their choir master was exciting and he was impressed the first time he heard the choir perform.

“The first time we actually rehearsed and I heard them sing, I told them I was impressed and it would be an honour working with them. At the get go, we all agreed on working hard. It was a pleasure working with them,” said Mr Shamlaye.

Ms Marengo said it was interesting because although there were few members who were professional singers, the majority of them were singing in a competition for the first time.

She said their hard work paid off. “I told them that if we work hard, we will definitely win the competition. Because although they had never sang before we had alto, tenor, bass, soprano and each person knew their role. So everybody knew what they had to do and they were doing it extremely well, especially during final. We had a winning mindset,” said Ms Marengo.

One of the members, Marlon Esparon, who was taking part in a choir for the first time, described it as an exciting experience. “It was a good experience because you not only learn how to sing but mingle with others from the company as we do not all work in the same sections. So we made new friends,” he said.

For Vanessa Bastienne, who is also not a singer and does not know anything about music, she joined the choir because of the charitable cause. “It was very interesting because I found myself learning about different voice range. I actually did alto and it was a great experience. I will definitely remain a member of the choir,” she said.

Absa Seychelles won R30,000 which was donated to the division for substance abuse, prevention, treatment and rehabilitation, (DSAPTR), in an effort to help re-integrate sufferers of substance abuse into the community while simultaneously sensitising the public to the effects of substance abuse on its victims and their families.

It should be noted this was the first time Absa Seychelles was taking part in the competition. A different team took part a while back under the Barclays group.

Patsy Canaya

Photos by Louis Toussaint