Wes­ley Gib­bings

If it’s one thing, the Bird­song Acad­e­my has set it­self some se­ri­ous­ly am­bi­tious goals. For in­stance, the pro­gramme for its Au­gust 15 Va­ca­tion Camp clos­ing con­cert, ref­er­ences “vi­sion and cul­tur­al in­no­va­tion” as a key DNA-lev­el fea­ture of the com­mu­ni­ty in which the acad­e­my re­sides, and a main man­date of the acad­e­my.

Con­cert at­ten­dees were re­mind­ed of the fact that the late thinker/au­thor, CLR James, lived not far from the Bird­song Tu­na­puna pa­n­yard, and that he was a key ad­vo­cate of such a con­di­tion.

Themed in ac­cor­dance with the camp pledge of “The Fu­ture in the Present!”, the con­cert was host­ed at Queen’s Hall, St Ann’s, Port-of-Spain, be­fore an au­di­ence com­pris­ing large­ly par­ents and sup­port­ers of the close to 100 par­tic­i­pants in the an­nu­al event.

“As Bird­song Acad­e­my marks its on­go­ing mis­sion of nur­tur­ing tal­ent and op­por­tu­ni­ty, tonight’s mu­sic ho­n­ours tra­di­tion—ca­lyp­so, jazz, and choral works—while em­brac­ing the bold ex­pres­sions of a new gen­er­a­tion,” the pro­gramme says.

“It is a liv­ing tes­ti­mo­ny to re­silience and pos­si­bil­i­ty, and to the pow­er of art to tran­scend time.”

Ac­cord­ing­ly, the pro­ceed­ings yield­ed an eclec­tic, de­vel­op­men­tal reper­toire, al­beit in un­even mea­sures giv­en a com­bined cadre of novices and sea­soned hands. The Ju­nior Steel com­ple­ment, for in­stance, de­liv­ered Take me Home in halt­ing, de­lib­er­ate strokes to open the pro­gramme.

But when it was the turn of the Se­nior Band and or­ches­tra in­cor­po­rat­ing wind and brass in­stru­ments, the au­di­ence was thrilled by ex­pert ver­sions of Mi Tier­ra and Waltz of the Flower con­duct­ed by Je­hi­ah Hope. For the full or­ches­tra, Clash of the Gods and Man­te­ca were un­der the ba­ton of Savion Nicholls.

Stand­out in­di­vid­ual per­for­mances came from teen mu­si­cal prodi­gy, Isa­iah Mar­celle—who is a mul­ti­ple Mu­sic Fes­ti­val win­ner on the pi­ano—who chipped in on the four cel­lo in the se­nior steel. He al­so showed what he is worth on the keys with a mov­ing so­lo in­ter­pre­ta­tion of Ed­ward Egar’s Salut d’Amour and a duet with promis­ing gui­tarist, Derek Fer­min.

Vo­cal­ist Ash­ley La Croix al­so drew pro­longed ap­plause from the au­di­ence with a mov­ing ren­di­tion of Bruno Mars’ Trea­sure along­side the wind and brass en­sem­ble.

Some of the camp’s mu­si­cal in­struc­tors un­der the Bird­song Evo­lu­tion ban­ner showed their charges what it’s all about with an en­er­getic playlist led by Bird­song mu­si­cal di­rec­tor Der­ri­anne Dyett.

Along­side her were Lau­ren Matthias on trum­pet, Jer­ron Jones play­ing the sax­o­phone, Je­hi­ah Hope on flute, pi­anist Aidan Vil­lafana, Dean Williams on gui­tar, and drum­mer, Von Best.

At the end of the evening, as camp in­struc­tors as­sem­bled on stage for a farewell bow, and as the young per­form­ers downed their in­stru­ments, there would have been greater con­fi­dence that the CLR ad­mo­ni­tion had been se­ri­ous­ly en­gaged.

In cel­e­brat­ing these young per­form­ers, we cel­e­brate James’ vi­sion it­self: the fu­ture alive in the present, ground­ed in com­mu­ni­ty, cul­ture, and hope.

Trinida­di­an thinker CLR James, who re­mind­ed us that to­mor­row is born in the choic­es and cre­ativ­i­ty of to­day. James’ fam­i­ly home once stood on Ward Street, just a short walk from the Bird­song pa­n­yard in Tu­na­puna—a re­minder that vi­sion and cul­tur­al in­no­va­tion are part of our com­mu­ni­ty’s DNA.

This con­cert shows how our young mu­si­cians em­body that idea.

They are not sim­ply prepar­ing for the fu­ture; they are shap­ing it now, through every note, rhythm, and har­mo­ny.

Each per­for­mance af­firms how ed­u­ca­tion, dis­ci­pline, and pas­sion can trans­form lives and build brighter hori­zons.

As Bird­song Acad­e­my marks its on­go­ing mis­sion of nur­tur­ing tal­ent and op­por­tu­ni­ty, tonight’s mu­sic ho­n­ours tra­di­tion—ca­lyp­so, jazz, and choral works—while em­brac­ing the bold ex­pres­sions of a new gen­er­a­tion.

It is a liv­ing tes­ti­mo­ny to re­silience and pos­si­bil­i­ty, and to the pow­er of art to tran­scend time.

In cel­e­brat­ing these young per­form­ers, we cel­e­brate James’ vi­sion it­self: the fu­ture alive in the present, ground­ed in com­mu­ni­ty, cul­ture, and hope.