Wes­ley Gib­bings

Bird­song’s an­nu­al Christ­mas on Cam­pus con­cert is a favourite of those in­ter­est­ed in a show that of­fers a high-qual­i­ty mu­si­cal ex­pe­ri­ence rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the sea­son. This year up­held such ex­pec­ta­tions.

Host­ed un­der a cool open sky at the UWI Old Works Build­ing in St Au­gus­tine on De­cem­ber 14, a promise of “mu­sic and fes­tive cheer” was ho­n­oured dur­ing more than two hours of en­ter­tain­ment.

On show were cam­pus spawned col­lab­o­ra­tors such as the UWI Arts Chorale, Los Par­ran­deros de UWI, and the home­grown Bird­song Acad­e­my En­sem­bles in­clud­ing the Bird­song Steel Or­ches­tra, Bird­song Acad­e­my Steel, Bird­song Acad­e­my Or­ches­tra, Acad­e­my Winds and Brass, Bird­song Voic­es and Bird­song Evo­lu­tion.

Mu­si­cal di­rec­tor, Der­ri­anne Dyette and her Bird­song Evo­lu­tion in­clud­ed top mu­si­cians such as gui­tarists Dean Williams and Theron Shaw and ren­dered a jazzy touch to some Christ­mas favourites.

The Young Bird­song sta­ge­side band, un­der the di­rec­tion of Re­nal­do De Pieza be­gan the windup to the pro­ceed­ings on the evening’s favourite in­stru­ments.

Next steps for Bird­song in­clude the par­tic­i­pa­tion of its Steel­band Acad­e­my in the 2026 Youth Steel­band Panora­ma com­pe­ti­tion in the 21 and Un­der cat­e­go­ry. Christ­mas on Cam­pus sound­ed the first alert.