Bar­bara Jenk­ins

One Wednes­day af­ter­noon in 1957, when I was a 15-year-old Form Five stu­dent, Moth­er He­len, choir mis­tress, St Joseph's Con­vent, Port-of-Spain, ex­pelled me from the se­nior choir.I had re­peat­ed­ly dis­obeyed this rule: Af­ter school, go home, bathe and change in­to or­di­nary clothes and re­turn to choir prac­tice. I didn't go home. At home or­di­nary clothes were out­grown school over­alls and pipe borne wa­ter, a rar­i­ty. A sit­u­a­tion be­yond the bound­ary of the Con­vent imag­i­na­tion at that time.On a Mon­day night, 40 years lat­er, I en­tered Bish­op Anstey High School Hall and the choir mis­tress asked my name. When I gave it, Pat Bish­op said, "You sound like a so­pra­no." Then: "Joanne, share your mu­sic. Show her what to do." I be­came a Ly­di­an on the strength of my walk­ing in­to a Ly­di­ans re­hearsal, per­haps to sing.

Those two mem­o­ries sur­faced when, af­ter a long lapse, I re­turned as prodi­gal to Ly­di­ans choir prac­tice last Sun­day af­ter­noon. On­ly the fat­ted calf was miss­ing. I felt I had come home.

Af­ter re­hearsal, I asked Ly­di­ans' man­ag­er Patrick Bertrand about what's hap­pen­ing with The Ly­di­ans since Pat's death two years ago. He point­ed out the ways in which The Ly­di­ans have tran­si­tioned and grown while stand­ing on the shoul­ders of Pat's im­mense lega­cy of in­no­va­tion and in­clu­sive­ness. I was ex­cit­ed to learn that Can­dice Caton is bring­ing her young men of the QRC Chorale, and there's the Free­town Col­lec­tive and the Lit­tle Carib Dance Co. As­tra Noel of Ly­di­an Steel de­buts two of her com­po­si­tions and there are new, younger parang soloists. An old-stager like me was re­lieved to learn that there's a lot that's fa­mil­iar.

Ed­die Cum­ber­batch is giv­ing a mi­ni-recital, Al­i­son Seep­aul and Adele By­noe are train­ing the choir in move­ment, Gillian Bish­op de­signed some of the dancers' cos­tumes. The pro­gramme in­cludes Ly­di­an Steel, Mal­ick Tas­sa drum­mers and African drum­mers and many old favourites among the songs.Co-artis­tic di­rec­tor An­dr� Largen brings eight of his dancers of the Lit­tle Carib Dance Co to per­form. Re­spon­si­ble for chore­og­ra­phy, stag­ing and stage di­rec­tion, Largen is "de­light­ed to be­work­ing with the Ly­di­ans again af­ter the Au­gust Ju­bilee Con­certs." He re­mind­ed me that the Lit­tle Carib The­atre is al­so part of Pat's lega­cy.Sun­day Arts Sec­tion writer Ja­nine Charles-Far­ray, co-artis­tic di­rec­tor of the 2013 Christ­mas con­cert se­ries, Christ­mas–A Sea­son of Love, shared with me her con­cept of The Four Hearts that shapes the pro­gramme.

The Bro­ken Heart as­serts that the pow­er of mu­sic and to­geth­er­ness can trans­form a bro­ken heart and rekin­dle love. The Holy Heart pays trib­ute to Mary, moth­er of Je­sus, in Mar­i­an-themed mu­sic. In The Fes­tive Heart, lo­cal mu­sic in­cludes a rous­ing se­quence of parang cho­rus­es, a John Ja­cob arrange­ment of Lord Re­la­tor's Make a Friend for Christ­mas and Ever­ard Leon's At Christ­mas Your Heart Goes Home. At the end of the jour­ney, The Joy­ful Heart sym­bol­is­es love through the joy of mu­sic and this is where T&T's finest tenor, Ed­die Cum­ber­batch will fea­ture.

Pat Bish­op would quote to us Ly­di­ans, "Un­til all have crossed, none have crossed, and some we have to car­ry." It was her way of re­mind­ing Ly­di­ans of one of the key tenets of Chris­tian­i­ty, and in­deed of hu­man­i­ty: Love one an­oth­er; you are your broth­er's keep­er. The pro­gramme of mu­sic for Christ­mas–A Sea­son of Love, is a jour­ney that the Ly­di­ans make with the au­di­ence and the wider na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty. The jour­ney takes us from our un­hap­pi­ness at all that is go­ing wrong in our lives, our com­mu­ni­ties and our na­tion, through ex­pres­sions of faith and hope, then to a place of trans­for­ma­tive heal­ing with mu­sic and love. I left choir prac­tice with much joy in my heart, singing, "Make a new friend for the Christ­mas this year, you hear..." all the way home.

�2 Bar­bara Jenk­ins is the 2013 win­ner of the Hol­lick Ar­von Prize and the au­thor of Sic Tran­sit Wag­on (Peepal Tree, 2013).

The Ly­di­ans will stage Christ­mas–A Sea­son of Love at Queen's Hall, St Ann's, De­cem­ber 12-14, at 7.30 pm night­ly, and De­cem­ber 15 at 6.30 pm.