AN­GE­LO JE­DIDI­AH

an­ge­lo.je­didi­ah@guardian.co.tt

In an ef­fort to elim­i­nate school vi­o­lence, vet­er­an mu­si­cian Roy Cape is hop­ing his foun­da­tion’s mu­sic lit­er­a­cy pro­gramme will push youths in a new di­rec­tion.

Yes­ter­day, the Roy Cape Foun­da­tion launched its Mu­sic School in the Com­mu­ni­ty pro­gramme at the Diego Mar­tin Cen­tral Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­tre.

Hope­ful young peo­ple and their par­ents would show up to en­rol in the first se­mes­ter of the mu­sic ed­u­ca­tion pro­gramme, this time for Diego Mar­tin res­i­dents, Cape said, “To­day is not about me, it’s about the chil­dren. I lived in this area for 31 years and I al­ways had a strong feel­ing of com­ing back to Diego Mar­tin.”

Cape in­tends to make mu­sic lit­er­a­cy and in­stru­ment per­for­mance pro­grammes avail­able, to show young peo­ple it is pos­si­ble to pur­sue ca­reers in the arts and mu­sic in­dus­try.

En­rolled stu­dents will be able to learn to play the steel­pan, wood­wind, brass, string and per­cus­sion in­stru­ments. Most of the in­stru­ments were do­nat­ed through the Mu­sic Lit­er­a­cy Trust, head­ed by Jen­ny Lee.

Cape said ex­po­sure to mu­sic from the age of ten in­flu­enced who he is to­day.

“I was able to get away from hav­ing to go to YTC or St Michael’s home. I was giv­en that op­por­tu­ni­ty and I feel if I can help to­day some of the mis­guid­ed youths...I’m hap­py,” the cul­tur­al icon said.

Cape, who is set to cel­e­brate his 81st birth­day on April 18, said he won’t stop shar­ing his knowl­edge of mu­sic from his 50-year-long ca­reer. He said he in­tends to con­tin­ue his mis­sion of es­tab­lish­ing mu­sic ed­u­ca­tion through­out the coun­try, a dream he once shared with his best friend, the late Leroy “Black Stal­in” Cal­liste. “He [Black Stal­in] was al­ways con­cerned for the peo­ple and the wel­fare of the peo­ple. I feel the same for the young peo­ple…I would hope that the peo­ple will turn out in bet­ter num­bers be­cause this is for your chil­dren’s fu­ture.”

Al­so speak­ing at the launch, Diego Mar­tin Cen­tral MP Symon de No­bri­ga said he him­self was jeal­ous of the op­por­tu­ni­ty be­ing giv­en to the young peo­ple, not­ing they should not let it go by.

“This may not be your cho­sen pro­fes­sion when you be­come adults, that’s not im­por­tant. What is im­por­tant is that you have a space to ex­plore and to grow and ex­pand your imag­i­na­tion,” de No­bri­ga said.

He ref­er­enced the chal­lenges that schools like Diego Mar­tin North Sec­ondary face, but said the foun­da­tion has al­ready made a dif­fer­ence in the lives of many youths.

“I see this as a means to break down a lot of the bar­ri­ers that ex­ist not on­ly there, but even in the way you per­ceive your­self, your present and what your fu­ture can be. By ex­plor­ing these pas­sions, you open up your­self to so many more pos­si­bil­i­ties for what your life can be,” he said.