Resh­ma Ra­goonath

Pop­u­lar San Fer­nan­do steel or­ches­tra Skif­fle has forged a key link­age with US-based Sweet Bri­ar Col­lege to es­tab­lish a "Skif­fle USA" branch.

This sig­nif­i­cant link­age comes as the Cof­fee Street-based or­ches­tra pre­pares to host its pre­mier con­cert "Skif­fle through the years–a mu­si­cal jour­ney" to­mor­row.

The con­cert, which fea­tures per­for­mances from Stal­in, Na­dia Mad­hoo and Ed­die Cum­ber­batch, will be held at Queen's Hall, Port-of-Spain, from 8 pm.

Or­ches­tra leader Ju­nia Re­grel­lo said he was thrilled to be host­ing the con­cert against the back­drop of the band es­tab­lish­ing its link with the col­lege.

Re­grel­lo de­scribed the link­age as an im­por­tant evo­lu­tion­ary step as Skif­fle cel­e­brates its 20th an­niver­sary this year. He said the link­age is a mile­stone and a cul­mi­na­tion of sev­en years of plan­ning.

"It is a link­age with a uni­ver­si­ty which as the acad­e­mia as­pect to it. Mem­bers of our band are high school stu­dents, young peo­ple in­volved in the band and it gives them an op­por­tu­ni­ty to im­prove their ca­pac­i­ty," Re­grel­lo said.

Skif­fle USA will be an ex­change pro­gramme be­tween the col­lege's stu­dents and mem­bers of the or­ches­tra and each side will ben­e­fit from the cul­tur­al ex­pe­ri­ences to be gained, he said.

"We look at this as a very pro­found ex­pe­ri­ence in terms of young peo­ple com­ing in­to the band," he said.

He added that mon­e­tary gain can­not be "the be all and end all."

"It has to be de­vel­op­men­tal and a path­way to growth and de­vel­op­ment," Re­grel­lo said.

Dr Jef­fery Alan Jones, a mu­sic teacher at the col­lege, is in Trinidad to for­malise the arrange­ments. He is among the guest per­form­ers at the con­cert and will be con­duct­ing the or­ches­tra for the clas­si­cal piece, Puc­ci­ni: Madama But­ter­fly the hum­ming cho­rus.

Jones, who did his PhD dis­ser­ta­tion on Skif­fle, said he was pleased to be part of the link­age be­tween Sweet Bri­ar, which ranked among the top 20 US col­leges, and Skif­fle.

He said Skif­fle has be­come part of his fam­i­ly and he was pleased to come to T&T, with as­sis­tance of the Vir­gina Foun­da­tion of In­de­pen­dent Col­leges and the Med­nick Memo­r­i­al Fel­low­ship, to ce­ment a last­ing link­age.

"I hope that it can be a kind of cul­tur­al ex­change were we can both learn from each oth­er and gain ex­pe­ri­ence. We are very ex­cit­ed. My stu­dents are very ex­cit­ed. If things go well, we are hop­ing that the way tech­nol­o­gy works that we can Skype and video chat amongst the play­ers and the groups," Jones said.

He said he was ex­cit­ed to have been giv­en the op­por­tu­ni­ty to con­duct the or­ches­tra.

"The play­ers are in­ter­est­ed in a very broad spec­trum of mu­sic be­cause they play all kinds of mu­sic. They play In­di­an clas­si­cal mu­sic, they play ca­lyp­so, they play pop mu­sic, reg­gae, they play clas­si­cal. When it is time to work on clas­si­cal mu­sic they are very in­ter­est­ed in mak­ing sure that they get as much of the ex­pe­ri­ence that they can.

"As a teacher it is won­der­ful to work with such a ded­i­cat­ed and cu­ri­ous group of stu­dents. It is spe­cial for me," Jones said.

Tick­ets for the con­cert are avail­able at Queen's Hall box of­fice and at Skif­fle's Cof­fee Street, Pan The­atre.