By Clarence Pinto

Daijiworld Media Network- Muscat

Muscat, Sep 7: The Mangalorean Catholic Center of the Parish (MCCP – Sts. Peter and Paul Church – Ruwi) under the dynamic leadership of its president of the 25th year, Dilip David Correa, is all set to organize the exciting semifinal round of the Gulf Voice of Mangalore 2016 on Friday September 23, 2016 at the Main Parish Hall of Sts. Peter and Paul Church – Ruwi.

The gates will be opened for the audience at 4.00 pm and the program will commence at 5.00 pm sharp.

“We are truly excited to present the semi-final round of Oman Region of this wonderful world class talent hunt show during our silver jubilee year,” says Dilip Correa, a multitalented leader with great aptitude for Konkani language and culture.

“I am sure that every contestant has prepared for this competition for many days now and they will offer a tough competition to each other and thus exhibit their entertaining singing talents. Ultimately, for sure, the best one should win.”

Three experienced and accomplished musicians of the Konkani Music world will be the adjudicators of the competition. They are Fr Jayaprakash D’Souza from Mangalore, Bendicta D Souza, known as Benny, teacher from UAE and Adrian Gomes, an ace musician from Kuwait.

The exciting news of this event is the master of ceremonies, Donald Correa of ‘Hero only yours’ fame, who will be flying exclusively for this show from Dubai. He will certainly enthrall the Muscat Konkani audience with his unique style and classic presentation techniques.

MCCP will be pleased to present one of the highly talented musicians of the Holy Spirit Church - Ghala, Triven Goveas known as ‘Master of Music’ as the music arranger for this competition. Triven has spent lot of time and energy to support the contestants in their preparation for this tough competition.

The finals of the Gulf Voice of Mangalore 2016 will be held in Bahrain on Friday, November 11, 2016.

The Sultanate of Oman region preliminary round of the Gulf Voice of Mangalore 2016 was held on Friday, April 29, 2016 at the main parish hall of Sts. Peter and Paul Church.

The winners who are participating in the semifinal round are as follows:

Male Category

• Cavin D Souza
• Joel Francis Mendonca
• Joyal DSouza
• Noel Machado Kayyar
• Prakash Alwyn D Souza
• Sandhesh D Souza

Female Category

• Flavia Castelino
• Flavia Jacintha Fernandes
• Inez Lobo
• Precilla Lobo
• Zeena Maria D souza

Judges: 

Fr Jayaprakash D’souza

Well trained and with thorough knowledge of Music, Fr Jayaprakash D’Souza is highly respected musician in the Coastal Karnataka region. Native of Bela Parish of Mangalore, he has done graduation from St Aloysius College, Mangalore, ecclesiastical studies i.e. B.Th. from St Joseph’s Seminary, Jeppu, Masters in Theology from Jnana DeepaVidyapeeth, Pune. He has also done Masters in English from IGNOU, New Delhi and Masters in Applied Psychology from Annamalai University.

Fr Jayaprakash is well known for his knowledge in music and is a great keyboard player. He is famous for composing and harmonization and conducting choirs in various parishes in Mangalore diocese.

Fr Jayaprakash has served for four years as an assistant parish priest, Angelore, Bondel, four years as a parish priest at Narampady, Shaktinagar, four years as principal-in-charge of Sandesha College of Fine Arts and currently serves as an English lecturer in Pompei College, Aikala.

He has judged many singing competitions in Mangalore and was one of the judges for the GVOM preliminaries in Sharjah on May 13 this year.

Bendicta Rita D Souza

Well known for her beautiful smile and teaching abilities, Benny Teacher’s musical journey started since she was in second standard. Music was her passion and deep rooted in her heart and soul. Her first composition was for Mahatma Gandhi’s 100th centenary year in 1969 with the song ‘Gandhiji, namma bapuji, namma rashtrada pithaji’.

Later when she became a teacher, she took part in western, eastern, Hindustani, Carnatic, classical music/singing competition for the inter-school district teachers level competition and won Junior Chamber Association, Mangalore, Musical Association as a soloist and group with her fellow teachers. The Mangalore Rotract competition was also mostly won by her where she won the cup from the great figure Shivaram Karanth. She also won prizes at Konkani Natak Sabha, Mangalore Musical Association and other competitions held around Mangalore. She has also sung with Victor Concesso for 2 of his musical nights, Fr Walter Albuqerque's CDs as well as Apolinaris D’souza’s CD.

Since 2000, she started composing devotional hymns and in 2001 released her first CD ‘Moladhik Motheen’ in Dubai. On releasing this CD she was adorned the title of ‘Konknethli Meera Bhai’. Then she released albums like Hossana (English & Konkani), Divya Muthu (Kannada), Sampadhalen, Samarpithan, drama production ‘Mother Theresa’ written by her and produced and directed by Benna Ruzai.

This year her seventh album was released for the ‘Year of Mercy’ ‘Havn Thanelan’ which is a super hit master piece with record sales around the world.

Adrian Gomes

A qualified engineer in Electronics and Communications, Adrian started with his musical journey in 1976 when he started to learn Accordion from Fr Albuqerque at Fathima Retreat House Mangalore and then learnt Organ, Guitar, Drums, and Trumpet. He has played Trumpet/Drums for different Orchestras in India viz. Ashok Charan Orchestra in Mangalore, Kalakaar & Toofaan Orchestra in Bombay and Konkani Musical Nites of Claud D’souza & Eric Ozario (Rang Tarang Geetmala) in Mangalore.

He has composed the music and played Keyboards, Trumpet, Accordion & Harmonica in Konkani, Hindi & Bengali recordings/albums in Kuwait and released four Konkani Instrumental audio cassettes & CDs viz. ‘A Tribute to the Konkani Composers’ Vol- 1, 2, 3 & 4.

He has led the orchestra and performed for several Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil &Telugu Playback singers namely Dr P Susheela, Mano, Anuradha Sriram, Srinivasan, Vasundara Das, Biju Narayan, Music Director Deva, Harini, Unni Menon, Min MINI, KG Markose, Cicily and several other visiting Kuwait.

Having organized the shows, conducted the orchestra and played Keyboards, Accordion, Trumpet for Konkani Nites of Wilfy Rebimbus, Henry D’souza, Melwyn Peris,Claud D’souza & Wilson Olivera in Kuwait without their own original musicians, he has also conducted the orchestra and played Accordion, Trumpet & Keyboards for several Musical shows in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Bahrain, Qatar & USA along with different Konkani Singers like Rony D’cunha, Anitha D’souza, Nephie Rod, etc and different composers mainly Wilson Olivera.

Adrian has judged many Malayalam & Konkani competitions in Kuwait and judged GVOM competitions in 2010, 2012, 2014 in Dubai, Kuwait & Bahrain

He has been bestowed with the titles ‘Sangeeth Vazanthran Shilpi’ by USWAS – Dubai in 2007 and ‘Konkan Tansen’ by Kuwait Konkans in 2008.

Donald Correa

Donald Correa, a popular name among Mangalureans in the UAE and around has created waves in the field of entertainment by exhibiting his all-round talent, be it in singing, compering, drama, literature, Yakshagana and the latest being composing songs.

Dony is well known for his organizing skills and has arranged many successful musical and entertainment shows in Dubai. He has successfully led the organizations like CYM, AICUF, St Mary's College Shirva, and FAMAD Pernal, Dubai.

Donald Correa fondly known as ‘Dony’ is a familiar face in the entertainment world. He has carved a niche to himself by being an acclaimed singer, finest composer, great actor, talented writer and a creatively unique compere. Hailing from Pernal Parish, Dony has compered more than 60 plus cultural programs. He is the common name in compering nites, cultural programs of various associations in and out of UAE. He has ably handled the GVOM semi-finals in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait for GVOM Season 3 & 4 respectively. Lately he is also popular due to his debut Konkani album-‘Hero Only Yours’ which is a super hit album all over the Konkani world.

Dony’s wife Asha Roshni is also highly talented and award winning singer, compere and Konkani activist. Dony and Asha are blessed with Deona Rebecca and Delisha Ruth.

Triven Goveas

Triven is an engineer by profession, self taught musician with an extraordinary ability to grasp any music in a flash and reproduce it in his instrument with perfection. He is one of the finest musicians supporting the Ghala Parish Mangalurean Choir who has presently combined his obsession to the music and respect to the requirement of Gulf Voice of Mangalore event to prepare every contestant meticulously for the competition.

Son of Ivan Pius Goveas of Bejai Parish and Tressy Fatima Goveas (Vincent Ferrer Church – Valencia), Triven started his music journey at the tiny age of six years. With his special ability to hear and remember the tunes, his parents supported him to pursue his interest in music and gifted him a Casio CTK-611 when he was six years. Triven remembers, “ I never knew how to play it, so my parents sent me to my uncle Bernard Moras who was skilled in that instrument and rest is history.”

It is Triven’s in-built pursuing power which leads him to the perfection of playing music for any songs and he smiles and says, “But the truth is- I DO NOT KNOW HOW TO READ NOTATIONS. I hear a song, dissect the different instruments and play the tunes; completely by ear.” Triven is also thankful to Jawahar Pinto who gifted him the Exquisite Keyboard to move further in his music endeavor. Triven has a brother Travelon Len who is studying in Oman.