Lending her voice

You Can’t Always Get What You Want. The famous song by Rolling Stones was repeatedly aired on North American news channels in the last two months. Of interest to the community was the presence on stage of Cyra Rustom Asli of Toronto who was among the students of Grades 11 and 12 of Cawthra Park Chamber Choir who had the rare honor of performing with the rock band during its "50 and Counting Tour” shows in Toronto on May 25 and June 6, 2013. "We were selected through a recommendation by the Faculty of Music from the University of Toronto. All the students in the Cawthra Park Chamber Choir contributed their time before, after and during school for news broadcasts, videos and interviews,” clarified Asli in response to Parsiana’s queries. The Rolling Stones select one local choir to sing with them in each city they visit, noted a report on cbcnews of May 24. "While Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and the boys are old enough to be grandparents to the choir members, the students have no trouble identifying the band. Many have grown up listening to the Stones in their parents’ music collections,” added cbcnews.

Cyra Asli: talented singer

The Stones band members moved about in the middle with the students in two groups of 12 on either side of the stage. The band had sent information about the music arrangement in advance for which the Choir has been practising for weeks. The students were expected to wear ear pieces with a "click track” to keep time over the din of the crowd, as reported on thestar.com of May 1, 2013. The tickets for the Toronto shows were priced steep at $ 624.50 each.
After studying for four years at the Cawthra Park Secondary School Asli graduated with a High School diploma this year. Recognized as one of the best music schools in Toronto, according to What’s On, the Choir of this School regularly holds public concerts.
Tracing her music journey Asli recalls, "From the beginning I enjoyed singing.” The songs she had learnt at daycare and school would invariably be sung to her parents who recognized her potential. "Around the age of seven I auditioned for the Ontario Royal Conservatory of Music and was accepted... I studied there for about five or six years, did a lot of vocal exams and participated in concerts and competitions in various genre groups.” Once she was accepted at Cawthra Park on the basis of her audition, she continued her training there.
She will now pursue a bachelor’s degree in music education at the Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto. In addition to vocal training, "I will be learning to play many other instruments in my first year such as violin, trumpet, clarinet, piano,” says the songbird.
The 18-year-old daughter of Anita and Rustom Asli, originally of Karachi, says that the family tries to attend functions at the Ontario Zoroastrian Community Foundation "as often as we can. We enjoy the company of our friends there. My favorite activity is the sports day event.”