JYC goes virtual for Christmas
JAMAICA Youth Chorale (JYC) is pulling out all the stops to ensure no one in its audience is left out this holiday season. As has become the norm in the world of entertainment, the local choir is taking its annual Christmas concert into the virtual realm.
The JYC calendar event will be staged this Sunday, December 20 on local station Public Broadcasting Corporation of Jamaica (PBCJ) as well as on the choir’s Youtube page.
Artistic director and founder of the choir Gregory Simms shared that with the current pandemic the choir had to shift things, but it was clear that the audience had to be treated to some music for the season.
“With everything that’s going on we had to change up things. Ususally we would be having our Christmas concert season at the Phillip Sherlock Centre for the Creative Arts at UWI, but COVID ruined that. So, we have partnered with PBCJ and recorded the event which will be aired on Sunday,” he told the Jamaica Observer.
However, given the times, meeting and rehearsing for this virtual concert came with its fair share of challenges.
Simms exlained that pulling off the performance, which has been dubbed A Joyful Christmas, presented a steep learning curve for the choir, as it marked a sharp departure from what the members have been accustomed to.
“It was a very different experience. For one, the sound is very different as the members of the choir are performing in masks, and the spacial requirements also presented a challenge. When you consider that a choir is all about communing and coming together, this was quite a change for us.”
The pieces chosen for Sunday’s concert have also been dictated by the times. Simms noted that the restrictions did not allow for the exploration of a lot of new material and as a result, the presenation will feature mainly tried and tested favourites, with very few new works.
“We were only able to have about three short rehearsals – the curfew also played a role in that. So we sent out the recordings to the members – who had to do a lot more individual work – then just before the recording we held an outdoor rehearsal to pull everything together. But they are such a talented set of young people; they impress me all the time. The overall sound is different but I’m satisfied with how it turned out,” said Simms.
Sunday’s concert will also feature local tenor Rory Baugh as special guest performer as well as veteran broadcaster and actress Fae Ellington. Pianist Stephen Shaw-naar will accompany the choir.
Looking forward, Simms noted that given the pandemic a wait-and-see approach will have to be taken as it relates to physical performances.
“As a choir we live for performances...stepping on a stage is what we are all about, and we feel empty without that experience. But right now we can’t do that so moving forward, we are reconsidering our approach to sharing our talent. The JYC has always been active on social media but now we will have to look into creating content for our Youtube platform until it is that we can all step into a concert hall once again,” Simms said.
Ian Takes Flight is a Bookends 2020 Christmas Gift Book Selection. Here, the author, the artist Richard Nattoo, shares his thoughts on art, and his inspiration for the book…
You’re a children’s author now. What was your own childhood like?
I grew up in Spanish Town. I remember I lived at Featherbed Lane. Then in Grade 2, around 2001, I moved basically up the lane where there were a lot more trees around me. A lot more nature. I remember planting things like peas and dem ting deh. Then over the years I remember planting corn and then sorrel and starting a little garden. It was a therapeutic thing for me to water my garden and see how far everything had grown because I would always know how tall they were yesterday. Then I would go to the country and that was a whole fun experience for me.
I was always drawing and making things. I didn’t really have much friends. I had a few friends in primary school – I don’t know if they were really my friends.
They used to beat me up sometimes, but then I was the smartest kid in the school, so I would realise that these kids, even though they would probably beat me up, they would line up to get the homework from me because I had the right answer. I realised that I could really mess these kids up if I want to, you know? I could just write all wrong things and just erase it five minutes before class and put the right thing. But I didn’t. Anyway, I kinda realised how important it was to be smart. From that, I was just trying to get smarter.
How have your experiences in nature contextualised your art?
I had a bigger backyard at my first house, with a lot of macka
Richard Nattoo
trees. I remember them being just some really tall black trees with a lot of vines growing down from it. There was barely any sunlight touching the ground because of how thick the canopy of the trees was. I realised in my later work that I draw a lot of black trees and I think it’s because of that first interaction with trees.
Ocean imagery is prevalent in your works. Why is that?
There’s a strange connection that I have to water. I think it’s because a lot of my work focuses on mental exploration. I’m trying to understand the mind as a place. The mind is so similar to water because, when you think, it’s almost like throwing a rod into the ocean and you pull up a thought, you pull up something, you know? I remember when I just started painting a lot of water stuff, it was around the same time I started lucid dreaming, just out of the blue. Being able to fly in these dreams. It’s interesting.
It’s almost like you’re in the air but you’re not really in the air and there is something kinda magical about that. I remember having a series of consecutive dreams. It was about me running towards a place, and then the next dream was me at the end of that place and there was an ocean nearby.