Sean Nero

Mu­sic ad­ju­di­ca­tor Dr John Paul John­son says he has won new re­spect for male vo­cal­ists par­tic­i­pat­ing at the 29th Bi­en­ni­al T&T Mu­sic Fes­ti­val fol­low­ing Tues­day's round of com­pe­ti­tion in Class 8 – Op­er­at­ic Aria – Male. Sev­en en­ter­tain­ers filled the spot­light at Queen's Hall in St Ann's Port-of-Spain, to de­liv­er se­lec­tions of their choice, con­scious that on­ly four days ago, John­son had ad­mon­ished com­peti­tors in Class 2b – Bari­tone So­lo who he felt ap­peared be­fore him un­pre­pared. Three of those bari­tones formed the night's op­er­at­ic cast. They re­turned to the stage far more pol­ished and ready to match the four oth­er fine tuned voic­es in the op­er­at­ic class and wowed the US mu­sic pro­fes­sion­al. Li­o­ba Dun­can, Dirk Govia, Stephan Her­nan­dez, Chris­t­ian Joel, An­dre Man­gatal, Garfield Wash­ing­ton, and David Williams were the con­tes­tants in this cat­e­go­ry.

"You made my evening," said John­son, smil­ing, to sus­tained au­di­ence ap­plause. "I was read­ing the Guardian and it talked about my crit­i­cism of male vo­cal­ists in an­oth­er cat­e­go­ry. It's true. I was very crit­i­cal, but tonight we had a very strong group of gen­tle­men. Such well cho­sen arias. Well pre­pared. I heard bet­ter pro­jec­tions. "What was I lis­ten­ing for? What the voice did, char­ac­ter­i­sa­tion and how did they bring across the nu­ances and if the sto­ry was be­liev­able." Man­gatal emerged as the con­tes­tant that gave the best op­er­at­ic per­for­mance with his treat­ment of Lamen­to Di Fed­eri­co "L'ar­lesiana" by France­so Cilea. How­ev­er, Class 8 – Op­er­at­ic Aria–Male was not the on­ly cat­e­go­ry that field­ed en­ter­tain­ers that sang to John­son's heart.

Class 4 – Fe­male Vo­cal Trio which fea­tured two con­tes­tants–Ly­di­an Singers Trio and Ly­di­ans Trio–as well as Class 17–Folk Song Choirs (20 singers and over) where the Ly­di­an Singers was the lone con­tes­tant. The Costaatt Choir was the oth­er en­trant reg­is­tered to ap­pear. Fe­male trios were re­quired to per­form the test piece ti­tled "The Song of Shad­ows," by British com­pos­er Ce­cil Arm­strong Gibbs. A self-con­fessed lover of British choral mu­sic from the ear­ly 20th cen­tu­ry, John­son im­me­di­ate­ly point­ed to mu­si­cal traps in the song and said "these nasty har­monies," and evoked chuck­les from the con­tes­tants. In­tro­duc­ing his com­ments on the Ly­di­ans' folk pre­sen­ta­tion with a joke, John­son said, "The oth­er en­sem­ble did not turn up this evening. I don't know if it was out of fear." His quip went down well with pa­trons.

Re­sults:

?Class 8 – Op­er­at­ic Aria – Male

1. An­dre Man­gatal, 99

2. Garfield Wash­ing­ton, 98

3. Chris­t­ian Joel, 97

Class 9 – Gui­tar So­lo

1. David Cock­burn, 93

2. France­so Em­manuel, 90

Class 5 – Wood­wind Cham­ber En­sem­ble

1. T.T.S.B.S.O, 96

2. T.T.S.B.S.C, 81

Class 4 – Fe­male Vo­cal Trio

1. Ly­di­ans Trio, 97

2. Ly­di­an Singers Trio C, 91

Class 17 – Folk Song Choirs

1. Ly­di­an Singers, 96

?...Vi­o­lin­ists wow judges

ABOVE: ?St Au­gus­tine Cham­ber Or­ches­tra vi­o­lin­ists Ali­cia Richins, right, and Gesiye Souza Okpo­fab­ri placed first and sec­ond re­spec­tive­ly in Class 8a–Vi­o­lin So­lo at the 29th Bi­en­ni­al T&T Mu­sic Fes­ti­val.

?Mon­day's stag­ing of the 29th Bi­en­ni­al T&T Mu­sic Fes­ti­val tak­ing place at Queen's Hall in St Ann's Port-of-Spain, saw three fe­male vi­o­lin­ists from the St Au­gus­tine Cham­ber Or­ches­tra (SACO) wow ad­ju­di­ca­tor Dr John Paul John­son.

His spe­cial­i­ty is choral mu­sic, but af­ter hear­ing per­for­mances from these three young ladies John­son was left wish­ing he had been able to hone his tal­ent on strings. Ali­cia Richins, Gesiye Souza Okpo­fab­ri and Rhon­da Guisep­pi were the con­tes­tants that ap­peared in Class 8a Vi­o­lin So­lo to play se­lec­tions of their own choice. Richins played Hun­gar­i­an Dance from Sergei Rach­mani­noff while Okpo­fab­ri chose Slo­van­ic Dance from An­tonin Dvo­rak. Con­cer­to No 5 from Lud­wig Beethoven was Guisep­pi's tune-of-choice. "I'm a hor­ri­ble vi­o­lin­ist," he told the au­di­ence, laugh­ing. "But I re­mem­ber my days study­ing the in­stru­ment. It was great to watch these young vi­o­lin­ists grap­pling with these pieces."

Class 10 – Or­a­to­rio – Male was an­oth­er hot­ly con­test­ed cat­e­go­ry on the evening's play­bill where Bruce Col­ly­more-Jones, Dirk Govia, Chris­t­ian Joel and David Williams got in touch with their spir­i­tu­al side to de­liv­er re­li­gious mu­sic hop­ing to wow the "con­gre­ga­tion," ac­cord­ing to John­son. "It's not enough to go on stage to sing the words. You have to move the con­gre­ga­tion," he said. How­ev­er, the women's seg­ment of this voice was al­so be­ing judged; Class 9 – Or­a­to­rio–Fe­male. Mu­sic chal­lengers were: Maria Ban­field, Her­mi­na Charles, Ja­nine Charles-Far­ray, Les­ley Lewis-Al­leyne, Ger­maine Wil­son and Guyanne Wil­son. Women con­tin­ued to make their pres­ence felt as wit­nessed in Class 1–Fe­male Choice (20 singers and un­der). The Ly­di­an Singers, The He­len Chorale and Bish­op Anstey Staff Choir were the groups vy­ing for top ho­n­ours do­ing the test piece Lau­damus Te from the song­book of Vi­val­di.

Re­sults:

?Class 9 – Or­a­to­rio – Fe­male

1. Ja­nine Charles-Far­ray, 98

2. Her­mi­na Charles, 97

3. Guyanne Wil­son, 95

Class 10 – Or­a­to­rio – Male

1. David Williams, 99

2. Chris­t­ian Joel, 96

3. Dirk Govia, 95

Class 8a – Vi­o­lin So­lo

1. Ali­cia Richins, 96

2. Gesiye Souza Okpo­fab­ri, 85

3. Rhon­da Guisep­pi, 84

Class 1 – Fe­male Choirs (20 and un­der)

1. The Ly­di­an Singers, 98

2. The He­len Chorale, 95

3. Bish­op Anstey Staff Choir, 93