Black Col­lar Cre­ative Foun­da­tion will hold its in­au­gur­al event, The Black Col­lar Gala: Clas­sics and Ca­lyp­sos, on Oc­to­ber 4 at 7 pm at Queen’s Hall, St Ann’s.

In cel­e­bra­tion of Ca­lyp­so His­to­ry Month, the event will fea­ture the sounds of steel, pi­ano, clas­si­cal vo­cals, and ca­lyp­so with some of the finest lo­cal tal­ents. Des­per­a­does Steel Or­ches­tra, a 12-time Panora­ma cham­pi­on cel­e­brat­ed for their dy­nam­ic per­for­mances and pi­o­neer­ing ex­cel­lence in the steel­pan art form, will be in the line-up.

Join­ing them will pop­u­lar vo­cal­ists Na­talia Dop­well, Dr Ed­ward Cum­ber­batch, Ali­cia Jag­gasar, and Alan Coop­er.

Dop­well is a so­pra­no and alum­na of the pres­ti­gious Man­hat­tan School of Mu­sic and has per­formed on in­ter­na­tion­al stages. She gained rave re­views for her por­tray­al of the Queen of the Night in sold-out per­for­mances of Mozart’s The Mag­ic Flute and is recog­nised for her com­pelling stage pres­ence and ver­sa­til­i­ty in both opera and con­tem­po­rary gen­res.

Dr Cum­ber­batch is an award-win­ning tenor soloist, lec­tur­er, and win­ner of the Over 25 Recital Class at the 1997 In­ter­na­tion­al South African Eisteddfod Fes­ti­val and has gained wide­spread ac­claim for his per­for­mances across the Caribbean. A mul­ti­ple Trinidad and To­ba­go Mu­sic Fes­ti­val cham­pi­on, Dr Cum­ber­batch is al­so a not­ed aca­d­e­m­ic in mu­sic, hav­ing per­formed at in­ter­na­tion­al fes­ti­vals and with ac­claimed choirs and or­ches­tras.

Jag­gasar, the First La­dy of Parang and 11-time reign­ing Parang Queen, is known for her mu­si­cal style and com­po­si­tions that fuse T&T’s in­dige­nous gen­res of ca­lyp­so and so­ca with Latin, Span­ish, and oth­er mu­si­cal in­flu­ences.

Coop­er is a clas­si­cal­ly trained pi­anist whose vir­tu­os­i­ty and im­pres­sive reper­toire span both tra­di­tion­al clas­si­cal com­po­si­tions and con­tem­po­rary Caribbean-in­fused arrange­ments.

A Trinidad and To­ba­go Mu­sic Fes­ti­val win­ner, Coop­er has per­formed with lead­ing or­ches­tras and en­sem­bles and is cel­e­brat­ed for his abil­i­ty to bridge clas­si­cal mu­sic with lo­cal ca­lyp­sos, of­fer­ing unique in­ter­pre­ta­tions of both forms.

The event will be a trib­ute not on­ly to T&T’s vi­brant mu­sic his­to­ry but al­so to the mem­o­ry of Ja­nine Charles-Far­ray, a trail­blaz­er in the cre­ative in­dus­try. As a mar­ket­ing and PR ex­pert, play­wright, mul­ti­ple award-win­ning TT Mu­si­cal Fes­ti­val win­ner, and Ly­di­ans con­tral­to soloist, Charles-Far­ray’s lega­cy is in­ter­wo­ven with her un­yield­ing ded­i­ca­tion to the arts.

She sup­port­ed ini­tia­tives like the Min­istry of Tourism, Cul­ture, and the Arts’ pan­dem­ic re­lief fund­ing. The Black Col­lar Cre­ative Foun­da­tion, es­tab­lished in her mem­o­ry, is com­mit­ted to con­tin­u­ing her work of em­pow­er­ing the cre­ative sec­tor.

In­cor­po­rat­ed in Oc­to­ber 2023, the foun­da­tion’s pa­tron is Ms Rhoma Spencer, who is a cel­e­brat­ed ac­tor, di­rec­tor, play­wright, co­me­di­an, docu-film­mak­er, and cul­tur­al ad­vo­cate.

Speak­ing on her role, Spencer said, “The sus­tain­abil­i­ty of our cre­ative artists can­not rest sole­ly on gov­ern­ment sup­port. Foun­da­tions like ours, along with the cor­po­rate sec­tor, play a cru­cial role in en­sur­ing artists thrive. As pa­tron of the Black Col­lar Cre­ative Foun­da­tion, I am ho­n­oured to lend my in­flu­ence both lo­cal­ly and abroad to help se­cure the fi­nan­cial sup­port that will em­pow­er cre­atives in Trinidad and To­ba­go.”

The gala serves as a fundrais­er to sup­port the foun­da­tion’s mis­sion of pro­vid­ing re­sources and op­por­tu­ni­ties for cre­ative prac­ti­tion­ers.

The funds raised will con­tribute to the launch of two grants:

• The Black Col­lar Grant—of­fer­ing seed fund­ing for artists or cre­ative en­ti­ties to sup­port start-up ini­tia­tives or spe­cial projects.

• The JCF Cre­ative Ca­pac­i­ty Grant is aimed at schools, non-prof­its, and NGOs en­gaged in cre­ative ca­pac­i­ty-build­ing projects across dis­ci­plines like mu­sic, dance, pho­tog­ra­phy, art, and film.

Tick­ets for this ex­clu­sive event are avail­able at Is­land eT­ick­ets (https://is­landet­ick­ets.com/event/Black­Col­larGALA), Queen’s Hall Box Of­fice, or email bc­cre­ative­foun­da­tion@gmail.com

To sup­port the foun­da­tion’s mis­sion, con­tri­bu­tions can be made to the fol­low­ing ac­count: Black Col­lar Cre­ative Foun­da­tion Bank: Re­pub­lic Bank, Trinci­ty A/C No: 870 803 124 501