Michelle Loubon

In­ter­na­tion­al­ly ac­claimed Car­ni­val Mes­si­ah artis­tic di­rec­tor Geral­dine Con­nor suc­cumbed to a heart at­tack in Har­row­gate, Leeds, Eng­land, around mid­night on Fri­day. In­ter­viewed yes­ter­day, renowned chore­o­g­ra­ph­er Car­ol La Chapelle said: "A few of us knew she was hav­ing prob­lems with her health but her spir­it re­mained strong to the end. We are still in shock at her pass­ing. I just got off the phone with Pe­ter Min­shall." La Chapelle added: "We have lost an icon­ic mem­ber of the artis­tic com­mu­ni­ty. She was ho­n­oured in T&T last year; A place she vis­it­ed an­nu­al­ly and kept in touch."

La Chapelle lament­ed she had died be­fore they had con­clud­ed ne­go­ti­a­tions on re­viv­ing Car­ni­val Mes­si­ah with Min­is­ter of Arts and Mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism Win­ston Pe­ters. She said: "I was her right hand per­son in Trinidad for Car­ni­val Mes­si­ah. She was con­stant­ly in touch with her Car­ni­val Mes­si­ah fam­i­ly. There were big plans for Car­ni­val Mes­si­ah." Car­ni­val Mes­si­ah was per­formed at the pres­ti­gious Roy­al Al­bert Hall in Lon­don, and ne­go­ti­a­tions were on­go­ing for Round House. A land­mark pro­duc­tion, Car­ni­val Mes­si­ah is a glow­ing ex­em­plar of the Caribbean's ca­pac­i­ty for world class cre­ativ­i­ty.

About Con­nor

In 2008, Con­nor was ho­n­oured by her al­ma mater Diego Mar­tin Sec­ondary School. She re­ceived a doc­tor­ate in mu­sic and cul­tur­al stud­ies from Leeds Uni­ver­si­ty. Con­nor's cre­den­tials even in­clud­ed a mas­ter's in mu­sic, a li­cen­ti­ate of the Roy­al Schools of Mu­sic, a diplo­ma in ed­u­ca­tion. She was the daugh­ter of Trinida­di­an par­ents Edric (singer and ac­tor of Hol­ly­wood fame) and Pearl (the­atri­cal agent).

Hav­ing lived and been schooled equal­ly in the UK and T&T, she has brought with her a unique blend of ex­pe­ri­ence and broad per­spec­tive to world­wide au­di­ences. Car­ni­val Mes­si­ah, which she con­ceived, au­thored and di­rect­ed, was first pro­duced by the West York­shire Play­house in 1999 and 2002. It ran at Queen's Hall, St Ann's, in 2003 and 2004, and ex­cerpts of the pro­duc­tion were shown in and around the Unit­ed King­dom.