The Commonwealth Resounds! in Trinidad and Tobago for CHOGM 2009
Partner organisations and musicians who were involved
The International Federation of Musicians and Phonographic Performance Ltd
Presented a day of seminars on copyright and intellectual property rights for performers and composers.
Trinidad CHOGM Task Force
The Classical Music Development Foundation of Trinidad & Tobago
The Classical Music Development Foundation of Trinidad & Tobago (CMDFTT) was formed with the deliberate intention of nurturing knowledge of music in its purest form, to both foster the development of classical music as well as create a platform for transferring this knowledge to enrich other forms of musical arts in Trinidad and Tobago.
The director of CMDFTT was contacted by Alison Cox of the Commonwealth Resounds (CR) in March, 2008, prior to their exploratory visit to the host nation of the 2009 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) and made arrangements for the CR team to meet with staff of the Ministry of Culture in both Trinidad and Tobago, and with the National Secretariat for CHOGM during their visit to the islands in 2008. The team also met with local instrumental groups and visited local concert venues.
Over the past year, CMDFTT liaised with international groups and worked towards heightening the awareness among local musicians about the visit of the various groups of CR. The CMDFTT has held meetings with the National Secretariat and more recently, with the Trinidad and Tobago Entertainment Company to assist in the planning of this event.
It is with great pleasure that we look forward to the visit of these talented musicians and welcome Commonwealth Resounds to Trinidad and Tobago.
Local audiences can look forward to the CMDFTT’s seasonal production, ‘Follow the Star’ on Wednesday 30 December at All Saints Church, featuring top local artistes, sopranos Natalia Dopwell and Tahirah Osborne along with rising tenor, Rory Wallace.
The University of Trinidad and Tobago
The UTT hosted some memorable workshops involving Commonwealth Resounds! musicians, generating some very exciting and dynamic skill sharing sessions between students playing different musical instruments.
The UTT also hosted the World Premiere of the Commonwealth Pianorama.
Grateful thanks to Dr. Vertrelle Cameron-Mickens and to the highly distinguished Professor Emeritus, Kenneth Julien who enabled us to experience the UTT's great facilities and wonderful personnel
The Trinidad and Tobago Entertainment Company
The Trinidad and Tobago Entertainment Company (T&T Ent) is a state agency under the Ministry of Trade and Industry, responsible for facilitating the development of a globally competitive entertainment industry. They were asked to look after the needs of The Commonwealth Resounds! in Trinidad, and to organise a programme of workshops, concerts, projects and performances in close consultation with the CHOGM Task Force and Alison Cox, TCR�s Founder and Musical Director.
Kamla Ramparsad de Silva, Tatiana Parrott, Malene Joseph and a wonderful team of dedicated volunteers worked immensely hard to give the international musicians a fulfilling and rewarding experience during their visit. As well as organising the rich varied programme of musical events, they also provided everyone with a welcome bag full of lovely souvenirs from Trinidad!
The Purcell School
The Purcell School is one of the country’s leading specialist music schools and has an internationally recognised reputation for combining excellence in musical development with high academic achievement. The School holds the UNESCO Mozart Gold Medal in recognition of its unique contribution to music, education and international culture. The School exists to provide young musicians of exceptional promise and talent with the best possible teaching, in an environment in which they can flourish and develop their potential. www.purcell-school.org
Trinidad 2009 Group
The Purcell School sent a team of eight young musicians to Trinidad – Sean Jackson, Megan Collis, Harim Oh, Charlotte Ashton, Oliver Cahill-Smith, Melissa Davies, Men Gei Li and Harrison Cole, plus staff members Quentin Poole, the Purcell School’s Director of Music and Jane Hunt, Concert Manager.
The young Purcell students worked very hard, not only to raise their own funds for the trip but also to help other talented Commonwealth musicians who would not otherwise have been able to participate in the programme. Thanks to the efforts of the Purcell School team, two deserving musicians from Guyana were involved in The Commonwealth Resounds! The team The team also raised extra money from their concerts to help the Mbale Youth Band towards funding for a life-changing trip to Australia in 2011.
The Purcell School’s popular fundraising concerts have taken place in many different regions of the UK, and the young musicians organising them have learned a range of useful skills – concert management, publicity, presentation skills, letter-writing, programming and poster design, to name but a few.
Chetham’s School of Music
Chetham’s School of Music is very proud to be involved in The Commonwealth Resounds. We took part in the event 2 years ago in Kampala, Uganda, which was a great success and we are delighted to be part of the planning and preparations for Trinidad 2009.
The 6 students and 2 staff participating this time are looking forward to being involved with all 3 major projects, the Creative Orchestra, the Commonwealth choir and the Commonwealth Pianorama as well as all the collaborative work with musicians from many other countries and the outreach work we are planning in schools and community centres.
Fundraising for the trip has been a huge part of the preparations and we are very proud of all the individual and collective efforts our students have made, as a result of which we should be able not only to totally self-fund our own costs but also contribute towards those of musicians from far poorer countries who otherwise would never be able to afford to take part.
Eugene Skeef
Celebrated South African performer and composer.
Claudio Kron
Musicians from Barbados
Smokey Burke smokeyburke2003@yahoo.com
Onika Laverne Best ‘Blak Klas Soyl’ blakklasoyl@yahoo.com
Kareen Clarke queenkareen@gmail.com
Jomo Lord
Daryl Bobb
Musician from Dominica.
Musicians from Guyana - Buxton Fusion with Keith Waithe
Keith Waithe is a highly experienced charismatic flautist, composer and animateur, who originates from Guyana. He brings with him four traditional musicians from a Guyanese group called Buxton Fusion, along with their fascinating array of instruments. Keith ran a spectacular project in Uganda as part of The Commonwealth Resounds! 2007
He will create a special musical portrait of Guyana in collaboration with Buxton Fusion
Buxton Fusion is a group of performers drawn from Buxton and Cove & John Ashram in Guyana, reflecting racial harmony and fusing cultural traditions of these two often disparate communities. Its members are three Indo-Guyanese and three Afro-Guyanese playing Harmonium, Dhantall, Dholak and locally made African drums and percussion.
Keith Waithe worked with Buxton Fusion in Guyana during 2008, coordinating their participation in events during the Carifesta X festival including a performance at the Theatre Guild Playhouse in Georgetown. Through his participation in the project Keith hopes to raise the aspirations and opportunities of young people in both areas and to inspire similar projects in Guyana and the Caribbean.
Uganda Resounds!
Celebrated Ugandan musicians Sarah Ndagire, Albert Bisaso Ssempeke, Hakimu Wanuka, Suzan Kerunen and Duncan Katimbo were due to bring to Trinidad and Tobago a celebratory insight into Uganda's colourful dynamic musical heritage. These talented musicians played an active role in The Commonwealth Resounds! during CHOGM 2007, and their ongoing involvement would have demonstrated how sustainable Commonwealth partnerships can be created and developed through music.
Unfortunately, only Sarah Ndagire was able to attend CHOGM 2009 due to restrictions imposed upon the others by the UK Visa Agency.
Triumph Brass
A brilliant young brass ensemble, Triumph Brass, travelled to Tobago on November 2009 with the musician Peter Harvey and two alumni students from The Purcell School, Joseph Richards and Hannah Grayson. They ran a lively two-day project with schools and communities in Tobago called Triumph Brass’s Commonwealth Blast. After this, they travelled to Trinidad, joining musicians from The Commonwealth Resounds! on Tuesday 24th November.
The Drummers of the African Diaspora
Our performance is a truly unique contemporary collaboration between African and disparate African diasporic aesthetics, uniting and re-inventing, through drum performance their historic and authentic association. The Drummers of the African Diaspora performed individual presentations as well as combine as a drum ensemble, to blend the drum, voice and movement in age-old ancestral rhythms and chants, which today, still continue to fascinate audiences throughout the world and moves towards informing a modern African musical idiom.
At the last minute, several excellent African musicians were unable to attend CHOGM 2009, even though funds had been raised for them and programmes carefully organised.
The UK Visa Agencies decided to prevented six distinguished performers from travelling via the UK to Trinidad so they were unable to participate in this life-changing experience, or to represent the interests of Uganda and Ghana.
The Commonwealth Resounds! would like to suggest that the UK Visa Agencies offer a great deal more more help and support to musicians in future when they are trying to complete visa applications to attend important international events.