Conductor Santiago Lusardi Girelli isn't afraid to experiment and innovate

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Ten minutes into a choral concert in the pale-gold church of St Francis of Assisi in Old Goa, the audience is about to erupt into claps when Santiago Lusardi Girelli signals for a pause. The conductor then continues to sway and punctuate the air for the next half hour, guiding the roughly 50-member choir through dramatic shifts in the mood and pace of the piece being performed: the Misatango, a misa (Latin for “mass”) composition that features an unexpected amalgam of vintage tango and church music. When his hands fall quietly to his sides at the end, the viewers, who