(Barbados Today) Noted cultural practitioner Clairmonte Taitt had died. In a statement, The National Cultural Foundation praised his work and contribution to the arts.
Below is the full text of the NCF statement
The National Cultural Foundation is saddened to hear of the passing of Caribbean actor, director, vocalist and broadcaster, Clairmonte Taitt.
Mr. Taitt, who was born in Guyana to a Barbadian father and Guyanese mother, was a Caribbean gem. He worked with the Philharmonic Orchestra in Guyana as a prize-winning tenor and choirmaster, as a BBC-trained broadcaster with Radio Demerara and Radio St Lucia as programme director, as well as the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation as announcer/producer.
In 1997, Mr. Taitt was one of the first recipients of the National Independence Festival of Creative Arts (NIFCA) highest and most coveted award the Governor General Award of Excellence in Drama and Speech for his performance of Flambeau, an excerpt from the Earl Earner play ManTalk.
He went on to train teachers and students through the NCF’s theatre arts programmes, facilitated from 1998 to 2013. He coordinated and was lead instructor in the TAPPWORK programme – the NCF’s Theatre Arts Play Production Workshop. He was also a NIFCA Drama and Speech judge and chief judge for several years.
Mr. Taitt gave a stellar performance in Timothy Callender’s How Music Came to the Aichan People which the NCF produced as its theatre production for CARIFESTA 2000 in St Kitts.
His career in drama spanned 60 years. In Barbados, for three decades Mr. Taitt worked extensively with Earl Warner, acting in several outstanding plays. In 2014, he received the Earl Warner Trust’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
The talented and highly regarded regional artiste will certainly leave a void and will surely be missed.
On behalf of the Board of Management and Staff of the NCF, we extend sincere condolences to his family, friends and loved ones. May he rest in peace.
