Winston Sill/Freelance Photographer
LEFT: Anastasia Johnson, the youngest of the listed performers at 'Music Through the Ages'.
RIGHT: Cmdr John MacFarlane presents his high tenor at last week Sunday's 'Music Through the Ages'.
Michael Reckord, Contributor
The University Chapel was full last Sunday afternoon for the first 'Music Through the Ages' concert, presented by the Jamaica America Friendship Association. Under the patronage of Governor General Sir Kenneth Hall, Lady Hall and US Ambassador Brenda LaGrange Johnson, the concert had a 'standing ovation' level of success, which indicates that if it becomes an annual event it is sure to attract good audiences.
Some of the island's best-known classical musicians - singers and instrumentalists - took part in the show, all performing for free. The proceeds will go towards the promotion of classical music in Jamaica and the provision of scholarships for two students to attend the University of Technology.
A folksy sort of atmosphere was generated by certain aspects of the show, including the relaxed, charming manner of the compere, Norma Brown-Bell. In introducing the performers, she not only gave highlights of their musical histories, as is customary, but also other biographical details. This would have been an irritant for some, but perhaps the objective was for the audience to know the musicians that little bit more.
Promotion of friendship
That the promotion of friendship was an aspect of the function was emphasised by the words of President Emeritus of the association, Ken Jones, in his message in the printed programme. He noted that the concert was in part to "contribute to building a gentler, kinder society", and goes towards the "goal of peace, love and unity".
Jon Williams was the first performer. He played the hymn Great is Thy Faithfulness on his violin, using his own arrangement, which was at times plaintive and at others cheerful. He returned in the second half to demonstrate his skill on the piano with variations on a theme from one of Paganini's caprices.
Soprano Carole Reid was the second performer. To sensitive accompaniment on piano by Roger Williams, she delivered a beautifully controlled Alleluia from Mozart's Exultate Jubilate. Her other solo offering, later in the programme, was Puccini's tender O Mio Babino Caro.
Additionally, she sang a duet with tenor Rory Baugh. Their romantic interpretation of the Andrew Lloyd Webber song All I Ask of You (from Phantom of the Opera) delighted the audience and the applause grew stronger when the two hugged at the end.
Charming the audience
Earlier, Baugh had charmed everyone with an aria from Puccini's Tosca and later Webber's The Music of the Night (Phantom of the Opera). Roger Williams accompanied both songs.
Donald Hossack - sometimes on piano, sometimes on organ - was the accompanist for many of the other songs by other performers. One of them was Cmdr John McFarlane (who has a pure, really high tenor, almost a counter-tenor sound), singing Donizetti's Un Furtiva Lagrima and later Verdi's Celeste Aida (from Aida).
The youngest of the listed performers was the Toronto-born piano student Anastasia Johnson, who played a meditative Pachabel Canon, followed by an upbeat Boogie Woogie by Jimmy Dorsey/Marvin Wright. Anastasia's second appearance was to play a beautifully arranged, tenderly presented version of Andrea Bocelli's The Prayer.
Promising youth
Leanne Welds, a young Jamaican studying both piano and voice in the US, showed great promise as an opera singer with her delivery of Benedetto Marcello's I'l Mio Belfoco. Her Italian sounded genuine enough, but it was not until Leanne's song - Gwyneth Walker's After All White Horses Are in Bed - in part two of the programme that English-only speakers could appreciate her excellent diction.
The last two singers in part one were mother and daughter Marilyn Brice-MacDonald and Christine MacDonald-Nevers. The former sang first (Art Thou Troubled by Handel) and then Christine sang Mozart's Bendempfindung. Then the two, together, further enchanted the audience with a beautiful, complex arrangement of Mendelssohn's I Waited for the Lord, from his oratorio Hymn of Praise.
The first half of the concert ended with 15-year-old Jessica Yap showing her genius on the violin. Her playing of Monti's popular Czar Das elicited both cheers and applause, the most for the evening up to then.
In the second half the audience was equally enthusiastic, perhaps even a bit more so, for the already mentioned Baugh-Reid duet, showing that people love a bit of romance, even in a classical concert.
Also receiving cheers and applause was the finale, the Jamaican folk songs Jane and Louisa and Fi Mi Love Have Lion Heart. Were they not out of place in a classical music concert? Purists might say they were, but they were beautifully rendered, and that's what mattered to the audience.
The standing ovation demonstrated their appreciation.
