Prime Minister at Queen’s Hall renaming ceremony: Remember our icons

THE PRIME MINISTER wants Trinidad and Tobago to remember its icons.

Dr Rowley made the call during his feature speech at the renaming ceremony of Queen’s Hall on September 23.

Queen’s Hall was renamed the Winifred Atwell Auditorium after iconic pianist and international music star, born in 1914.

Dr Rowley said the renaming of the hall is an effort to remember Atwell’s legacy and her contribution to music and the arts, not just in Trinidad and Tobago, but around the world.

“It is now fashionable at the drop of a hat to be able to recite and chronicle everything we don’t have, but very little is said about what we do have,” Dr Rowley said.

“Tonight, I hope we begin to remember that icon that I think we would have forgotten,” he said.

He admitted that when he was younger, he, too, did not know about Atwell and her contributions. He recalled his father using her name when ordering him to wash dishes.

“My father, who had known about Atwell, he would come by ever so often and order the nearest person to go wash the dishes. He would say, ‘You think you are Winifred Atwell or what?’ and we had to figure out what that meant.

“Eventually, I realised it meant her hands were not to wash dishes because they were insured. She was a great pianist.”

Minister of Tourism Randall Mitchell said performance spaces such as the newly-renamed Winifred Atwell Auditorium are more than venues but a safe space where local culture and expression can flourish.

“These performance spaces play a vital role in facilitating the ministry’s mandate to provide a platform of expression and development of our powerful cultural traditions through music, dance, drama, spoken word and other aspects of the performing arts.

“These spaces allow for the presentation of our history our cultural heritage and most importantly the safeguarding of our cultural identity as it passes from one generation to the next.”

“Atwell’s story is one of resilience and excellence. She was born in an era that automatically set boundaries for her as a woman of African descent. Winifred erased those barriers with grace and with the determination to express herself without limitation,” he added.

Atwell was born in 1914 in Tunapuna. She had her first formal piano lesson when she was two and a half years old and began playing when she was four. By the time she turned eight she was the official organist at the St Charles RC Church.

In the 1940s she entertained the British Fleet Air Arm on Saturdays at Piarco, where she earned one pound per night.

Her first recording in the early 1950s sold 30,000 copies in ten days.

She was best known for producing a show in 1969 at the then named Queen’s Hall that combined steelpan and piano. The show was named Ivory and Steel. An album of the same name was produced at the auditorium.

Atwell died at the age of 69, in 1983.