Fifty years ago the first mem­bers of the BP Mar­i­onettes Chorale–the first choir to be formed in a new­ly in­de­pen­dent Trinidad & To­ba­go–came to­geth­er to be­gin a jour­ney to be­com­ing one of the na­tion's most trea­sured cul­tur­al or­gan­i­sa­tions.

Next month, they launch their year-long 50th an­niver­sary cel­e­bra­tions with Land­marks, which will run from Ju­ly 12 to 14 at the Queen's Hall.

In 1963, this new choir's found­ing di­rec­tors were Jo­ce­lyn Pierre and June Williams-Thorne, who led the Chorale to their de­but in the 1964 Mu­sic Fes­ti­val, emerg­ing with the cov­et­ed JCC Cup as the Best Adult Choir in the com­pe­ti­tion.

Through a tran­si­tion in lead­er­ship, the choir main­tained its dom­i­nance at the na­tion­al Mu­sic Fes­ti­val af­ter 1974 un­der Gret­ta Tay­lor (mu­si­cal di­rec­tor), Su­san Dore (as­sis­tant mu­si­cal di­rec­tor) and Joanne Mendes (sec­re­tary and pro­duc­tion man­ag­er). The Chorale re­tired un­beat­en from lo­cal com­pe­ti­tion in 1980, win­ning the tro­phy for Most Out­stand­ing Choir in the Fes­ti­val each time it com­pet­ed.

A re­lease from the Chorale said over the fol­low­ing two decades, they set their sights on mea­sur­ing up against the best choirs in the world and ex­pos­ing in­ter­na­tion­al au­di­ences to Caribbean mu­sic, win­ning four ma­jor prizes from the three UK in­ter­na­tion­al choral fes­ti­vals in which they par­tic­i­pat­ed.

In ad­di­tion to com­pet­i­tive ap­pear­ances in­ter­na­tion­al­ly, the choir al­so trav­elled ex­ten­sive­ly across the Caribbean, North and Cen­tral Amer­i­ca, and Great Britain, re­ceiv­ing stand­ing ova­tions from ca­pac­i­ty au­di­ences at such pres­ti­gious venues as St Mar­tin-in-the-Fields in Lon­don, the As­sem­bly Rooms in York, and the Hall of the Amer­i­c­as in Wash­ing­ton DC.

At home, the Mar­i­onettes are known for break­ing new mu­si­cal ground. The group was the first to blend choral voic­es with the steel­pan, in per­for­mance with the Pan Am North Stars in the 1960s.

They al­so have giv­en lo­cal or Caribbean pre­mieres of cel­e­brat­ed works like Orff's Carmi­na Bu­rana; Fan­shawe's African Sanc­tus; V. Williams' Five Mys­ti­cal Songs; Brit­ten's Cer­e­mo­ny of Car­ols; Poulenc's Glo­ria; Bern­stein's Mis­sa Bre­vis and Chich­ester Psalms; and Karl Jenk­ins' The Armed Man (A Mass for Peace), in­clud­ing the ac­com­pa­ny­ing film.

Ac­cord­ing to the re­lease, the Mar­i­onettes' reper­toire ex­tends far be­yond West­ern clas­si­cal, and in­cludes opera, spir­i­tu­als, Broad­way, Caribbean and in­ter­na­tion­al folk songs, and of course T&T's ca­lyp­so. The Mar­i­onettes' com­mit­ment to their na­tion­al art forms in­cludes the com­mis­sion­ing of choral arrange­ments of Caribbean and na­tion­al folk songs, ca­lyp­so and oth­er mu­sic, to per­form both at home and over­seas.

With Land­marks, the Mar­i­onettes cel­e­brates both the past and the fu­ture. The pro­gramme 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-loved soloists, as well as the Mar­i­onettes Youth Chorale (found­ed in 1995), and Chil­dren's Choir (found­ed just last year), un­der the ba­tons of mu­si­cal di­rec­tor Gret­ta Tay­lor and new as­sis­tant mu­si­cal di­rec­tor Dr Roger Hen­ry.

Dri­ving the event is a dy­nam­ic mul­ti-gen­er­a­tional or­gan­is­ing com­mit­tee, which au­gurs well for the group's fu­ture. The 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.

More in­fo

Land­marks runs Ju­ly 12, 13 and 14 at the Queen's Hall, with tick­ets go­ing on sale at the Queen's Hall (624-1284) from June 24, 12�6pm 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 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.