Next week­end, when the BP Mar­i­onettes Chorale takes to the Queen's Hall stage with the first con­cert of their 50th an­niver­sary sea­son, Land­marks, their con­duc­tor and artis­tic di­rec­tor Gret­ta Tay­lor will have been lead­ing them for 39 of those 50 years.She found her­self with ba­ton in hand af­ter what she de­scribes as a "cri­sis of suc­ces­sion."But Tay­lor–like her col­leagues Joanne Mendes and Su­san Dore, who all joined the Mar­i­onettes lead­er­ship in 1974–are stu­dents of his­to­ry. Af­ter near­ly four decades at the helm, they ap­proach the 50th an­niver­sary not on­ly with nos­tal­gia, but a care­ful eye for the fu­ture as they pre­pare an­oth­er gen­er­a­tion to car­ry on the Mar­i­onettes' mu­si­cal and artis­tic tra­di­tions.

Ac­cord­ing to a re­lease from the Mar­i­onettes, those who at­tend­ed the Christ­mas con­cert last year, Cel­e­brate Hope, would have no­ticed some­thing un­usu­al.Though mem­bers of the choir and guest con­duc­tors have tak­en the ba­ton at Mar­i­onettes con­certs be­fore, this was the first time that the group's new as­sis­tant mu­si­cal di­rec­tor, com­pos­er and con­duc­tor Dr Roger Hen­ry, took his po­si­tion be­fore the choir. It was some­thing that was a long time in­com­ing.Hen­ry was a singing mem­ber of the Mar­i­onettes in the 1990s, be­fore de­part­ing for the US and com­plet­ing a doc­tor­ate in mu­sic (spe­cial­is­ing in choral con­duct­ing), and re­mem­bers Tay­lor lay­ing the ground­work for suc­ces­sion even be­fore his de­par­ture.

When as­sis­tant mu­si­cal di­rec­tor since 1974, Su­san Dore, tran­si­tioned to be­ing the group's Prop­er­ty Fund di­rec­tor in 2011 and Hen­ry re­turned to Trinidad in 2012 first to ad­ju­di­cate the last Mu­sic Fes­ti­val and then per­ma­nent­ly, the rest was pure­ly aca­d­e­m­ic, said the re­lease.The Mar­i­onettes' tran­si­tion in­to new lead­er­ship has been hap­pen­ing grad­u­al­ly for years.Over the last five, their or­gan­is­ing com­mit­tee has grown to en­com­pass three gen­er­a­tions, with com­mit­tee mem­bers Jacque­line Smith and Car­o­line Tay­lor tak­ing on po­si­tions of as­sis­tant pro­duc­tion man­ag­er and as­sis­tant artis­tic di­rec­tor.The mu­si­cal team has al­so grown to in­clude ver­sa­tile in­stru­men­tal­ist Jane Carter and com­pos­er/arranger Dar­ren Shilling­ford as repeti­teurs, sup­port­ing Tay­lor and Hen­ry.

In 1995, the Mar­i­onettes Youth Chorale was formed in re­sponse to calls from par­ents for a cre­ative out­let for young peo­ple.

Tay­lor has since trained the younger choir to share the stage with their adult coun­ter­parts, and to host and per­form with in­ter­na­tion­al tour­ing choirs. Many for­mer Youth Chorale mem­bers are now singing in the adult choir (some per­form with both).Then in 2012, af­ter ob­serv­ing the out­stand­ing tal­ent of the youngest mem­bers of the Mu­sic Fes­ti­val, Tay­lor found­ed the new Chil­dren's Choir, with its show-steal­ing youngest mem­ber be­ing just six years old.Un­der the ba­tons of Tay­lor and Hen­ry, the Chil­dren's, Youth, and adult Mar­i­onettes choirs take to the stage to cel­e­brate the or­gan­i­sa­tion's 50-year his­to­ry next week­end with Land­marks.In a pro­gramme span­ning Broad­way, opera, ca­lyp­so, gospel, jazz, spir­i­tu­als and more, the group re­vis­its some of their proud­est mo­ments, in­clud­ing award-win­ning per­for­mances at lo­cal and in­ter­na­tion­al com­pe­ti­tion; Caribbean pre­mieres; and clas­sic arrange­ments of re­gion­al favourites.Per­form­ing will be some of the group's best known soloists–Jacque­line John­son, Fer­yal Qudourah, Her­mi­na Charles, Garfield Wash­ing­ton, Mar­lon De Bique, Ayrice Wil­son, and many more.

The Land­marks se­ries al­so marks the launch of a com­pan­ion dou­ble-CD of the same name, and a full year of planned an­niver­sary events, in­clud­ing per­for­mances, work­shops, ex­hi­bi­tions, and doc­u­men­tary fea­tures.Land­marks runs Ju­ly 12 (7.30 pm), Ju­ly 13 (7.30 pm) and Ju­ly 14 (5 pm) at the Queen's Hall. Tick­ets are on sale at the Queen's Hall Box Of­fice (624-1284) from noon�6 pm Mon­day through Fri­day. Seats are $150 (open) and $200 (re­served).Tick­ets may al­so be booked through mem­bers of the chorale, and di­rect­ly from the Mar­i­onettes at email@mar­i­onetteschorale.com or 790-1751. To stay in touch with the BP Mar­i­onettes and their 50th an­niver­sary cel­e­bra­tions, please vis­it their web site at http://www.mar­i­onetteschorale.com and their Face­book page at http://www.face­book.com/mar­i­onetteschorale.