Dear Editor,
I wonder if it is possible that any of your readers have not heard of the Tina Insanally Foundation? It’s an organisation that was set up in 2010 in memory of Tina Insanally, whose diary, discovered after she had died in her early twenties, expressed a yearning that every child in Guyana could be blessed as she had been with the gift of music in her life. In their sorrow, her parents committed themselves to making Tina’s dream a reality, and for the past six years they have worked diligently to introduce children from deprived backgrounds to the wonder of making music.
On Saturday night I attended the seventh concert put on by the Foundation. Each succeeding year the organisers manage, amazingly, to surpass the high standard of the previous performance! More than 50 youngsters drawn from children’s homes in and around Georgetown, delighted the audience in the filled-to-capacity Theatre Guild.
Two choirs performed a wide range of songs—folk-songs, hits from the entertainment world and classics that had us humming along. A ten-year-old violinist coaxed some wonderfully resonant sounds out of his instrument—making me, for one, long for the day when schools have their own orchestras. A lively group (actually reading music!!) showed us just how much can be achieved with discipline, hard work and serious commitment. Boys from the St John Bosco Orphanage had our feet tapping as they regaled us with old favourites on their steel pans, but this time around it was the younger boys who were performing. One chirpy lad was barely tall enough to grin at us wickedly over the bass pans he gleefully pounded with a very fine sense of timing. The guitarists have gone a long way past the simple chord groupings we heard from them in the past, and are now into quite intricate finger-picking. All sang well, but Akim surely stood out for his natural talent and easy stage presence.
Children have a way of growing up—and that means that as fast as TIF trains them, they are off into the world of work. Nevertheless a few of the “seniors” showed off their talents alongside the “newbies”, providing support on drums and other instruments. Our hostess, Jasmine, once again showed how delightfully confident and competent she is as an MC. Seon (forgetting he’s now a working man!) had us chuckling at his clowning around and his impromptu “don’t try this at home” gymnastic stunts.
Much is involved in bringing off such a production. Most of the jobs are not in the spotlight—getting buses to transport the children, designing the T-shirts that made the children look so grand, creating the props and stage set that provided a magical spectacle. Weekly practice sessions are generally far from glamorous—but it is there that the children learn to push themselves to achieve excellence. Sitting in the audience I became aware of how enriching the whole experience must have been for the children: certainly their faces showed that this was a night they would never forget.
Congratulations to the Insanally family for their dogged determination to keep Tina’s dream alive despite the many setbacks. Big hugs to the teachers, whose enthusiasm and dedication was evidenced in the quality of the performance itself and the behaviour of the children on and off stage. A warm thank-you to patrons President Granger and First Lady, Sandra Granger, for attending, appreciating, mingling, and making the children feel very, very special. “Nuff respect” to all who helped with the various mopping up and stitching up jobs that went on behind the scenes.
Now, as I return to the insane world we live in, with its terrorists, refugees, power struggles, drug lords, racists, scary evidence of climate change and so on, and so on, I’ll remind myself of the joy and hope on the faces of those children and be inspired again by the echoes of their songs: “I’ll hammer out justice, ring the bell of freedom, and sing about love between my brothers and my sisters, all over this land.”
Yours faithfully,
Joyce Jonas
