Marionettes celebrates its diamond jubilee

In a series of celebratory concerts planned for July 14 to 16, The Marionettes Chorale will launch its much-anticipated 60th anniversary at venues in Port of Spain and San Fernando.

Titled Celebrating 60, the concerts will feature the award-winning choir’s scintillating repertoire of classical and contemporary choral arrangements including Calypso, Caribbean and national Folk songs in multiple languages.

“Our top priority is to do good music of every kind, and to do it as well as we possibly can because we believe in it, and because good music can speak to us all in a profound way if we take the trouble to listen. It has the power to teach, and to heal,” said Gretta Taylor, the group’s artistic and musical director.

With Taylor as conductor, ably assisted by a dynamic roster of emerging talent in Dr Roger Henry, Caryll Warner, and Joshua Joseph—the Marionettes Adult Choir and Youth Chorale (founded in 1995) will take patrons on a stirring musical journey that connects past and present.

Well-loved soloists Hermina Charles, Jacqueline Johnson, Deborah Nahous, Errol James, Nigel Floyd, David Stephens and Jake Salloum, among others, will perform.

Back in 1963 when founding directors of the Chorale, Jocelyn Pierre and June Williams-Thorne invited singers to audition for a new ensemble, little would they know that they were launching into choral history as the first choir to be formed in a newly independent Trinidad and Tobago.

The following year at the 1964 biennial music festival, the Chorale quickly established its musical dominance locally, capturing top honours as the Best Adult Choir in the competition.

When Taylor assumed leadership as musical director in 1974, the choir continued, unmatched in its choral exploits at local festivals. Joining her were Susan Dore (Assistant Musical Director) and Joanne Mendes (Secretary and Production Manager), along with a management committee comprising mostly volunteers from within the choir.

Marionettes retired from local competition in 1980 with an unbeaten record of winning the trophy for Most Outstanding Choir in the festival each time they participated.

In the years that followed, the group competed against some of the best choirs in the world from Europe, Asia, and the Americas. International recognition came in the form of four major awards from three UK-based competitions—among them the Ruth Railton prize for the Most Outstanding Contribution by a Visiting Group at the Cork International Choral and Dance Festival in Ireland (1984).

Marionettes subsequently travelled extensively on tour throughout the Caribbean, North and Central America and Great Britain. Performing before packed and appreciative audiences became the norm at prestigious venues such as St Martin-in-the-Fields in London, the Hall of the Americas in Washington DC, and most recently at Carnegie Hall in New York.

“We are extremely proud of our Calypso and steelband traditions, and regularly adapt them for the choir. We also want to show both local and international audiences the vast range of talents and traditions that we have in the Caribbean. We want to move audiences with western choral music as well as with our own traditional music, and do both equally well in the same programme,” said Taylor.

To their fans’ delight, the Marionettes has maintained a regular and exciting performance presence in Trinidad and Tobago. Their annual full-length Christmas concerts remain a well-attended fixture on the local calendar, as do their mid-year fundraiser events across T&T. During the lockdown, precipitated by the global public health Covid-19 challenge, they even adapted their offerings to a virtual platform for the benefit of music enthusiasts the world over.

For their Celebrating 60 concerts, patrons will be treated to an expansive repertoire of Classical, spirituals, Broadway, Caribbean folk and Calypso pieces— the latter of which were arranged by the late Desmond Waithe, who made a monumental 40-year contribution to the Marionettes. The series also marks the premiere of a new commission of Olatunji Yearwood’s Engine Room arranged by orchestra member Kern Sumerville.

Celebrating 60 will be presented at the Church of the Assumption (Friday, July 14  at 7 p.m.); All Saints’ Anglican Church (Saturday 15 at 7 p.m.);

and Naparima Bowl (Sunday 16 at 5 p.m.).

Tickets are $250 and available from the Marionettes 790-1751, orders@marionetteschorale.com