SAN­DRA L BLOOD

On Sun­day, bird­song Steel­band will host its an­nu­al two-hour Christ­mas on Cam­pus con­cert from 6 pm at the Old Works Build­ing, Agos­ti­ni Street, St Au­gus­tine—promis­ing “a night of mu­sic and fes­tive cheer.” Ad­mis­sion is free, and the setlists from the bird­song Acad­e­my En­sem­bles, along with guest per­form­ers UWI Arts Chorale and Los Par­ran­deros de UWI, are ex­pect­ed to be fit for roy­al­ty.

A rich blend of beloved lo­cal mu­sic styles—de­liv­ered through steel­pan, choral works and tra­di­tion­al parang—will show­case the di­ver­si­ty of T&T’s Christ­mas her­itage.

Now more than a decade old, this cher­ished com­mu­ni­ty tra­di­tion is root­ed in youth de­vel­op­ment. For­mer­ly held at Au­zonville Park, Christ­mas on Cam­pus is bird­song’s an­nu­al gift to its com­mu­ni­ty and, by ex­ten­sion, the na­tion.

The event is chiefly co­or­di­nat­ed by mu­si­cal di­rec­tor Der­ri­anne Dyett, work­ing in close col­lab­o­ra­tion with board col­leagues—steel­band di­rec­tor Re­nal­do De Pieza, ad­min­is­tra­tor Ife Charles—and a team of es­teemed tu­tors.

The steel­band’s di­rec­tor Den­nis Phillip said Christ­mas on Cam­pus re­mains the or­gan­i­sa­tion’s way of shar­ing joy, cre­ativ­i­ty and com­mu­ni­ty spir­it. Fam­i­lies, neigh­bours and mu­sic lovers, he not­ed, are in­vit­ed to cel­e­brate the sea­son with an evening of Caribbean Christ­mas mu­sic from a ster­ling cast of per­form­ers.

Found­ed in 1973, bird­song (bird­songtt.org) has grown in­to one of T&T’s most re­spect­ed com­mu­ni­ty mu­sic in­sti­tu­tions. The bird­song Acad­e­my op­er­ates one of the re­gion’s lead­ing free mu­sic ed­u­ca­tion and lit­er­a­cy pro­grammes for young peo­ple, of­fer­ing year-round in­struc­tion, men­tor­ship and per­for­mance op­por­tu­ni­ties. Its en­sem­bles in­clude the bird­song Steel Or­ches­tra, bird­song Acad­e­my Steel, bird­song Acad­e­my Or­ches­tra, Acad­e­my Winds and Brass, bird­song Voic­es and bird­song Evo­lu­tion.

Los Par­ran­deros de UWI—the UWI St Au­gus­tine cam­pus parang group—was formed around 1979/1980 by stu­dents of the uni­ver­si­ty’s Span­ish So­ci­ety. What be­gan as per­for­mances of tra­di­tion­al parang stan­dards at cam­pus events evolved in­to an en­sem­ble that writes and per­forms its own orig­i­nal mu­sic, adding fresh ma­te­r­i­al to the parang canon. Their work con­tin­ues to sus­tain and pop­u­larise the genre, es­pe­cial­ly among younger, uni­ver­si­ty-based per­form­ers, demon­strat­ing that parang is not on­ly a rur­al hol­i­day tra­di­tion but al­so thrives in ur­ban and aca­d­e­m­ic set­tings.

The UWI Arts Chorale, the res­i­dent choral en­sem­ble of the De­part­ment of Cre­ative and Fes­ti­val Arts (DC­FA), of­ten col­lab­o­rates with its sis­ter en­sem­ble, UWI Arts Steel. Their per­for­mances blend choral singing with steel­pan in­stru­men­ta­tion to cre­ate a dis­tinc­tive fu­sion that re­flects both clas­si­cal tra­di­tions and Caribbean cul­tur­al iden­ti­ty.

Pa­trons are en­cour­aged to bring cool­ers and en­joy the open-air, fam­i­ly-ori­ent­ed, pic­nic-style en­vi­ron­ment.

The con­cert runs with­out in­ter­mis­sion, but there will be a steady flow of food on sale in aid of the main­te­nance of the steel­band, acad­e­my and re­lat­ed so­cial en­ter­pris­es.

Pa­trons are asked to be seat­ed by 5.45 pm. Park­ing will be avail­able on the com­pound.

For fur­ther de­tails, email ife@bird­songtt.org, or call or What­sApp (868) 620-5285 or 760-9416.