BP Marionettes Chorale will launch its year-long 50th anniversary celebrations with Landmarks, from July 12 to 14 at Queen's Hall, St Ann's.Marionettes celebrates both the past and the future with Landmarks. The programme revisits some of their proudest moments, including award-winning performances at local and international competition; Caribbean premieres; and classic arrangements of regional favourites.Some of the group's best-loved soloists will be performing, as well as the Marionettes Youth Chorale (founded in 1995), and the Children's Choir (founded last year) under the batons of musical director Gretta Taylor and new assistant musical director Dr Roger Henry.According to a release, "Driving the event is a dynamic multi-generational organising committee."The series also marks the launch of a companion double-CD of the same name, and a full year of planned anniversary events, including performances, workshops, exhibitions and documentary features.
The History
Back in the middle of 1963, this new choir's founding directors were Jocelyn Pierre and June Williams-Thorne, who led the chorale to their debut in the 1964 Music Festival, emerging with the coveted JCC Cup as the Best Adult Choir in the competition.Through a transition in leadership, the choir maintained its dominance at the national Music Festival after 1974 under Gretta Taylor (musical director), Susan Dore (assistant musical director) and Joanne Mendes (secretary and production manager). The chorale retired unbeaten from local competition in 1980, winning the trophy for Most Outstanding Choir in the festival each time it competed.
Over the following two decades, the Marionettes set their sights on measuring up against the best choirs in the world and exposing international audiences to Caribbean music, winning four major prizes from the three UK international choral festivals in which they participated. In addition to competitive appearances internationally, the choir also travelled extensively across the Caribbean, North and Central America, and Great Britain, receiving standing ovations from capacity audiences at such prestigious venues as St Martin-in-the-Fields in London, the Assembly Rooms in York, and the Hall of the Americas in Washington, DC.
At home, the Marionettes are known for breaking new musical ground. The group was the first to blend choral voices with the pan in performance with the Pan Am North Stars in the 1960s. They have also given local or Caribbean premieres of celebrated works like Orff's Carmina Burana; Fanshawe's African Sanctus; V Williams' Five Mystical Songs; Britten's Ceremony of Carols; Poulenc's Gloria; Bernstein's Missa Brevis and Chichester Psalms; and Karl Jenkins' The Armed Man (A Mass for Peace), including the accompanying film.Their repertoire extends far beyond Western classical, however, and includes opera, spirituals, Broadway, Caribbean and international folk songs, and T&T's calypso. The Marionettes' commitment to their national art forms includes the commissioning of choral arrangements of Caribbean and national folk songs, calypso and other music.