Alberga, Calcraft to salute Beethoven today - Moder hails Jamaican female composers
Published:Sunday | December 13, 2020 | 12:11 AMYasmine Peru - Senior Gleaner Writer
Jamaica’s rich musical heritage, not only in the popular genres, but also in classical music, is nothing short of astounding. The classical music tradition dates back to the 18th century, with reports that the “first oratorio written in the Americas,” Jonah, was composed by Jamaica, Samuel Felsted sometime around 1773.
“When I arrived on this beautiful island in 1985, I immediately encountered some of Jamaica’s most outstanding personalities in music, outside of the popular music genres. Therefore, I was never under the common misconception that Jamaican music started with mento, developing into ska, rocksteady, and via reggae to dancehall,” Rosina Christina Moder, co-founder and executive director of Music Unites Jamaica Foundation (MUJF), told The Sunday Gleaner.
Moder is also keen to highlight the female side of Jamaica’s classical music heritage. “I am not sure which small territory has so many successful female composers? Jamaica surprises me still, after 35 years here,” she said. She quickly listed names such as Paulette Bellamy, Marjorie Whylie, Olive Lewin, Joy Fairclough, Jo-Anne Richards, Allison Morris, the late Lisa Narcisse, Barbara Ferland, Gloria Lannaman and Noel Foster Davis.
And of course, there are those composers who are doing extraordinary work outside of Jamaica. “There is Eleanor Alberga who is so little is known here, since she is so busy out there and has not visited Jamaica since 1998. There is the wonderful Sharon Calcraft, who lives in Sydney, Australia. Her parents left with her when she was 14 in 1969, and she came back for the first time to visit after 40 years when I met her. She did lots of international film music in her twenties as well, but focuses on classical composition now. Then there is Shirley Thompson, born in England to Jamaican parents,” an enthusiastic Moder said.
OTHER ELITE COMPOSERS TO BE PRESENT
Two of those elite composers, Alberga and Calcraft, will be present today, along with Ted Runcie from Taiwan, Paul Shaw and Andrew Marshall who resides in the United States and Jamaican veteran Peter Ashbourn , as well as, Michael Sean Harris, when Music Unites stages a virtual concert honouring Ludwig van Beethoven, starting at 4 p.m.
Described as the most outstanding of that group of composers, born in Jamaica, who now reside outside their native island, Alberga is a formidable presence in the areas of composition, piano performance and the world of classical music. Her bio states that as a female composer Alberga’s mark on the world is highly significant. Notable among her accomplishments is a female-themed BBC commission, performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Marin Alsop – Arise, Athena! – which headlined the Last Night of the Proms on September 12, 2015, the final concert of the BBC Proms, Europe’s largest music festival.
Calcraft wrote the score for her first short film, an animated film by Polish film-maker Antoinette Starkiewicz in 1978. She soon found herself in demand as a composer for feature movies where she discovered the perfect vessel for exploring a combination of disciplines: drama, visual arts and music. She has worked with many of Australia’s finest musicians in a state-of-the-art recording studio to produce the scores. In 1991, she became a guest lecturer at the Australian Film and Television School until the birth of twin sons in 1993. She went on a hiatus that lasted for nearly a decade. When she properly resumed composition, it was for the concert stage. Calcraft holds a master’s in composition from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney.
This evening’s MUFJ concert joins the worldwide celebration of the ‘International Beethoven Year’, in memory of Beethoven’s 250th birthday, as well as to showcase music by Jamaican composers, especially those who live and create outside of Jamaica.
This virtual concert will be live-streamed worldwide on many social media platforms such as Canute Ellis’ Culture Shock, and on Public Broadcasting Corporation of Jamaica television.