Late start at weekend Music Festival

For the first time in recent memory, competition in the Music Festival held at Queen’s Hall in St Ann’s, started late. Last Friday, proceedings got off to a late start because competitors and members of the audience were caught up in a massive traffic jam around the Queens park Savannah leading into St Ann’s.

Motorists entering and leaving St Ann’s encountered workers and equipment of Jusamco Pavers who were milling the St Anns Main Road from in front of Queen’s Hall.

The evening competitions started at 7.30 pm instead of the regular 7 pm, with Class OP - A2 Gent’s Vocal Solo. Sixteen competitors were listed to perform but only four showed up to face adjudicator Dr Richard Tang Yuk.

The test piece for this class was Fair House of Joy by Roger Quilter and competitors Marc Anthony Peter, Jamel Williams, Kory Mendez and Marc Morancie gave it their best shot.

When Tang Yuk took the stage the first thing he said was, “We need to get more people here, let’s start a petition to have people come to the festival for free.” In the end, Cory Mendez was first with 89 points, Marc Morancie was second with 88 points and Jamel Williams was third with 87 points.

The second class on the evening was OP-B1 Ladies Vocal Duet with Mendelsson’s I Would That My Love, as the test piece. Nine duets were carded to perform but because of their religion, two pairs performed for the adjudicator earlier. So the audience saw three pairs as four duets did not show up.

Tang Yuk asked the singers if they liked the tempo, accompanist Enrique Ali set for them. Some replied that it could have been slower. “I too felt it should have been a bit slower. On stage you are in charge, you must not be afraid to tell the accompanist what tempo you want. Start at your tempo and they will adjust.”

Misty-Ann Knights and Jerrana Douglas placed first, with Nickaela James and Denique Robertson coming in second and Renee Lawrence and Siobhan Lawrence third. The duet in third position was one of the two who performed earlier in the evening. The final class of the night was OP-D8 Improvisation on Steelpan. Of the four competitors listed to appear, only one showed up but he had competition from someone who was not listed.

Emanuel Joseph played One Note Samba while Jamal Pierre-Roberts played Pan Talent.

They both had to pick their song on stage before playing and did very well according to the adjudicator. “It is not easy to just pick a song a few minutes before playing and complete it with such improvisation.” The evening session was over at about 8.40 pm.