There were piano, violin, trumpet, sax and pan. There were solos, duets and choirs; singing and dancing and even a bit of theatre. There was poetry and there was prose; high moments and lows. The Guyana Music Teachers Association’s show Musicians on Stage at the National Cultural Centre on June 7 was an afternoon well spent.
The show began with an intro by students of the National School of Dance to a Lind Griffith choreographed piece called ‘Caribbean Style’. Perhaps this was meant to start the afternoon off on a bright note but the dancers seemed out of sorts and some of them missed quite a few steps. Their movements too seemed a bit stale.
The piano solos which followed, performed by children who had done well at the Royal School of Music exams, were all short and sweet redeeming the opening segment of the show.
Green Acres Primary School Choir showed why it deserved to win at the recently held Guyana Music Festival with an excellent rendition of Martin Shaw’s “The Song of the Music Makers”.
Then it was the West Ruimveldt Primary School’s Choral Verse Speaking Choir’s turn and it addressed the very topical issue of the environment with Nicholas Guillen’s “Can You Sell Me”.
Lively piano, violin and trumpet solos and duets were interspersed with these and other items and some students performed twice on different instruments.
The first steel band on stage was from the St John Bosco Boys School, with conductor Colgrain Whyte and MC Rosemary Benjamin Noble informed the audience that the St John’s boys had been members of the audience for years and have now graduated to the stage. They played a medley of national songs.
Annandale Secondary School Choir also went the route of national songs performing RCG Potter’s “My Guyana El
Dorado” and WRA Pilgrim’s “Salute to Guyana”.
Hilary Bose set the vocal tone with “You Light up My Life” and it was superbly matched and exceeded by Liane Williams’s music theatre piece “Without You” from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s My Fair Lady.
Ernesta Nelson and Abidemi Seaforth did their very accomplished rendition of “White Waves on the Water”, which had won them first place in their category at the Guyana Music Festival.
It was obvious from their smiles and the looks on their faces that the members of the Bishops’ High School Choral Verse Speaking Choir were having fun as they performed Paul Keens Douglas’s “Pan Rap” – oh yeah!
Dr Prashanti Mendes then presented trophies and prizes to music pupils. The Sarah Parris trophy was won jointly by Shamane Griffith and Noel Shewjattan pupils of Marilyn Dewar and Rosemary Henry who passed piano grade one with distinction.
Shaquille Hoyte, a pupil of Sharon Bryan got the highest distinction mark at grade one piano and won a special prize.
The Miriam Daniels/Sybil Husbands trophy was awarded to Tevera Franklin who got a distinction in piano grade two. She also won the Junior Music Teachers prize for pupils. The Clara Burrowes trophy went to Jamaal Skeete for his merit pass in piano grade three. Both Franklin and Skeete are pupils of Pauline Mitchell.
The Marcelle Hack trophy went to Hilary Bose, a Marilyn Dewar pupil, for her merit pass at piano grade five.
The Lynette Dolphin Lyre went to David Dewar for a distinction in singing at grade 7. He also won the Senior Music Teachers prize and the Philip Pilgrim Memorial Harp and is a pupil of Marilyn Dewar.
Mitchell’s pupil Joel Thompson, who passed grade 8 piano with merit, won the Janet Hunte trophy.
Three pupils of the Clemsville Conservatory, Adaeze Lumumba, Gordon Marshall and Curtis Henry jointly won the Dr Bernadette Theodore Gandi trophy for violin/wind instruments. Lumumba passed grade 2 violin with merit; Marshall, grade 2 trumpet with merit and Henry grade 3 saxophone with merit.
Marilyn Dewar’s pupil Adunni Robinson (grade 4 distinction) took home the Edna Jordan trophy for theory.
Mitchell won the Junior Teachers prize and Marilyn Dewar won the senior teachers prize.
It would have been a satisfied audience that left after the closing sounds of the Pan Wave Steel Band’s pan rendition of Bach’s “Air”.