Glenmuir High School Concert choir in performance. - DellmarBy Dr. Winston Davidson,
Contributor
A FAIR-SIZED audience of friends, well-wishers and music practitioners showed their appreciation in prolonged applauses, standing ovations and periodic outbursts as they responded to one of the finest concert performances by a school choir that I have heard in over 45 years.
The Glenmuir High School Concert Choir, under the able baton of director Justin Whyte, accompanied on the university organ, by the masterful Paul Bicknell and two pianos led by Livingston Burnett supported by Lydia Torriente and Marjorie Bayley, gave a thrilling performance Sunday afternoon at the University chapel. It was the final leg of their Christmas concert series held over for the Kingston audience.
Guest soloists, Yvonne Miller, mezzo soprano and Velia Espeut, soprano, added to the musical feast. In a demanding repertoire of 25 items made up of Christmas, 15th century music, gospel, African, Jamaican and English songs, the choir and their guests displayed a high standard of performance worthy of commendation.
Refreshing variety
The programme began with the processional Once in Royal David's City, with two solos sung by a treble, Tyrone Reid and alto, Mark Bradford. The fuller voice Mark Bradford, alto solo was a better indication of the traditional. The mix of the genders of four trebles and altos, 14 sopranos and contraltos and eight tenors and four bases made up a blend of voices which added a refreshing variety to the tonal quality in keeping with the demands of the wide-ranging repertoire. I doubt very much whether this has ever been tried on a consistent basis in Jamaica.
Indeed John Rutter's Quem Pastores Laudavere unaccompanied, was as fine a rendition as I have ever heard, evoking the emotional response of serenity, peace and transcendence, embodied in the beautiful tonal quality of the authentic chapel sound of the choir.
By contrast, Michael Burnett's Tenk Yuh For De Christmas and Christmas A Cum, displayed the exciting, upbeat, pulsating, freely expressive Caribbean style, beautifully and energetically executed. The first part of the programme also consisted of a solo Ring The Bells by Yvonne Miller.
Prolonged applause
The audience responded with prolonged applause to an excellent rendition, which highlighted a beautifully developed vocal instrument in full flight soaring above the heavens. This flight continued in the second half of the programme with no less beauty and excellence in the piece I Will Praise God. The audience was delighted.
The final section of the first half consisted mainly of 15th to 17th century music and provided two highlights. The first was Chirtopher Tye's Laudate Domini, which was a Bronze medal-winning item for the choir in the Choir Olympics, held in Austria last year.
Although the performance was good, the accompaniment of organ and two pianos was too weighty and detracted from the spirit of the performance. This piece should be done in future with organ alone, or unaccompanied, in order to display the excellence of the choir.
The second highlight was the Sanctus by Gounod with guest soloist Velia Espeut. Apart from minor intonation problems by the bases, this piece brought the house down as the choir reached an exceptionally high qualitative level. In this item Mrs. Espeut gave her best performance of the evening, although she sang two other songs, which included Ave Maria.
The mid-range of her voice displays the beauty of a very good instrument, but this is not supported in the lower register especially, which fades precipitously because of a lack of diaphragmatic support. With time Mrs. Espeut will develop into a force to be reckoned with.
The final half of the programme was just reward for hard work and commitment. It highlighted a command performance of African music displaying a synergistic blend of movement and song. It demonstrated the unity in both effect and spirit between conductor and choir in the English songs by Michael Diack, excellent accompaniment by Livingston Burnett in a pleasant rendition of Schubert's Cronos The Charioteer, spirited gospel arrangement of Handel's Hallelujah chorus by Teena Chin, soul-searching production of Clydesdale's I Am and standing ovation performance of Peter Tosh's Jah Is My Keeper, arranged by Winston Ewart.
The concert ended to standing ovation, with encore request after the final item; the well-known gospel song Great Is Thy Faithfulness. The choir ended a thrilling evening on a patriotic note with encore song, This Is The Land Of My Birth.
Congratulations to the Glenmuir High School family for a delightful evening of music.
