Members of Ishirini perform with children from Mathieson Music School at St Paul’s Cathedral. (Bishwarup Dutta)

It’s Western music, but with a local flavour. Cambridge choir Ishirini’s performance on Tuesday at St Paul’s Cathedral was an eclectic mix of the choral tradition with Tagore, and of Cambridge with Calcutta.

Ishirini, a young choir from Cambridge, UK, has been touring since February with performances in Europe, Calcutta and Kalimpong. Their repertoire is inspired by the “work and thoughts” of Rabindranath.

The choir was founded in 2009 by soprano Naomi Rouse and her husband, Jeremy. The debut tour was in Tanzania. Since there were 20 members, they decided to call themselves Ishirini, Swahili for 20.

For their Europe and India tour, the choir zeroed in on Tagore. “He was a strong influence on many European artists and thinkers,” said Naomi. “It was only afterwards that we got to know that our visit coincides with 150 years of his birth.”

Therefore, every song in the choir’s repertoire — titled An Offering of Songs, a translation of the word “gitanjali” — had a Tagore connect.

For Tuesday’s performance, Ishirini tied up with Calcutta’s Mathieson Music School, which provides musical education to underprivileged children and orphans.

“We’ve known Anup Biswas, who runs Mathieson, for a long time,” said Naomi. “We felt it would be nice to have the children singing Tagore’s songs. We got together and worked on two compositions commissioned by the choir.”

The children from Mathieson sang Purano shei diner kotha, Shedin dujoney and Bajro manik diye gatha, while Ishirini paired them with British, Welsh and Irish songs by poets who influenced and were influenced by Tagore.

“Our idea is a musical exchange in foreign lands. We hope to take this forward to places like Romania, Spain and Hungary,” said Ishirini member Jo, who teaches Greek at Cambridge University.

Ishirini is headed to Kalimpong for a string of performances with the Dr Graham’s Homes choir. The concluding concert will be at the Tagore Festival in Devon.