BahamaIslandsInfo.com: 'Symposium celebrates diversity of Afro-Caribbean musical talent'

Mrs. Audrey Dean Wright, Associate Professor and Head of Visual Arts and Performing Arts at The College, shared with the audience what inspires her as a Bahamian musician.

The Audience at the music symposium included music majours at The College of The Bahamas and members of the Royal Bahamas Defence Force.

(From Left) Dr. Marjorie Brooks-Jones, Dean of Faculty of Liberal and Fine Arts and Dr. Christine Gangelhoff, Assistant Professor of Music at The College of The Bahamas and co-coordinator of the symposium were among the attendees at the 2013 Bahamas International Symposium on Composers of African and Afro-Caribbean Descent recently held at The College of The Bahamas.

(From Left) Mr. Cleophas Adderley, Executive Director of the National Musical Heritage and Research at the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture; Mrs. Audrey Dean Wright, Associate Professor and Head of Visual Arts and Performing Arts at The College; Mr. Christian Justilien, Assistant Professor and Band Director at The College and Mr. K. Quincy Parker, University Transition Secretariat Attaché, composer and arranger were among the panelist that presented at the recent 2013 Bahamas International Symposium on Composers of African and Afro-Caribbean Descent held at The College of The Bahamas.

Bahama Islands Info
Sunday 03 March 2013

NASSAU, Bahamas -- It’s hard to live anywhere for three-and-a-half years and remain unchanged by the experience. Ask Audrey Dean-Wright. She lived in Haiti for that long and was devastated when the catastrophic, deadly earthquake struck the country in 2010.

At first, it was hard for her to process. But eventually, Mrs. Dean-Wright, Associate Professor and Head of Visual Arts and Performing Arts at The College of The Bahamas, resorted to what she knew best to express her anguish. She wrote a song called “Port-Au-Prince Tombé”, or “Port-au-Prince Has Fallen”.

One of Mrs. Dean-Wright’s music students at The College, Lavanda Brown, performed the song recently at the 2013 Bahamas International Symposium on Composers of African and Afro-Caribbean Descent. The symposium brought together the diverse creative genius of some of the best musicians in The Bahamas, the region and the world.
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Musicians were represented from around the world and discussed their musical influences and inspiration.  Audience members also interacted with composers. The topics explored included: “Cultural Identity in Bahamian Art Music”, “Perspectives on Composers and Performers of African Descent In Classical Music”, and “Diversity in Classical Music”.

At the symposium, Christian Justilien, Assistant Professor and Band Director at The College, shared his musical journey. He said one of the major turning points in his life was when he went off to school in the Unites States at the age of 12. He had the honour of playing with the Dade County Honours Orchestra, a significant accomplishment as no other student from Miami Edison Senior High School had played with the orchestra in over 50 years. His first experience playing with them has been hard to forget.

“The director raised the baton and we are getting ready to play the first piece. As soon as that baton comes down, I hear this sound that I have never heard before, I literally froze up. I couldn’t play because it was so beautiful. I just had to stop and look around.  I could remember this time thinking, ‘How did you get here?’”  he recalled.
“That prompted me to get into listening to just all types of music. My repertoire of things that I enjoy ranges from jazz and classical to marching banding.”
These various experiences captivated the audience members who came to the symposium. Senior Music Fellow at The University of the West Indies Peter Ashbourne’s was no different. Mr. Ashbourne wrote a Reggae Opera called ‘Mikey’, based on the life of a dub poet Mikey Smith.
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Other composers represented were: Cleophas Adderley, Executive Director of the National Musical Heritage and Research at the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture; Carlos Carrillo-Cotto, Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Illinois and Assistant Professor at Conservatorio de Musica de Puerto Rico; Dominique Le Gendre, Associate Artist at The Royal Opera House and K. Quincy Parker, composer and arranger. Others included Paul Shaw, Associate Professor at The University of Minnesota School of Music; Adam Walters, French Horn Section Leader at The Academy for the Performing Arts, University of Trinidad and Tobago and Marlon Daniel, Music Director of Ensemble du Monde and co-coordinator of the symposium.

Dr. Christine Gangelhoff, Assistant Professor of Music at The College of The Bahamas and co-coordinator of the symposium, said that the event was “fantastic.” “There were a lot of great conversations between the students and the panelists and among the panelists themselves. I was really happy with it,” she said.