by Professor Kwamé Ryan

I recently returned from an extended tour spanning South Africa, North America and Europe, during which I worked in my areas of primary research, which include the performance of orchestral and ensemble repertoire, the presentation of avant-garde opera and the development of innovative youth music programmes. 

On the African continent, I spent two weeks working with South Africa's two premiere orchestras, the KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic, based in Durban and the Johannesburg Philharmonic.  While making my debut in Durban in 2016, I was taken with its cultural similarities to Trinidad and Tobago, melding African, Indian and European influences.  I began to lay the foundations for future student and faculty exchanges, while taking the opportunity to learn about the township music schools that bring the joy of instrumental music to children living in poverty.   

I was truly inspired by this uncomplicated approach to music pedagogy, which is quite simply that music adds tangible value to challenging young lives.  In Soweto, I asked locals whether they were worried about instruments being stolen from kids on their way to or from school, and was told that in the townships, it would be unthinkable for anyone to deprive a child of the joy of making music in that way.  Keen to continue learning in this environment, I was particularly pleased to return to South Africa this year, and hope to realise plans for students of UTT's Academy for the Performing Arts to collaborate with their South African peers in the near future. 

The second leg of my tour took me to Philadelphia Opera to lead a workshop on a new opera by Dutch composer and jazz-pianist Kris Defoort based on the novel “The Time of our Singing” by Richard Powers.  Opening with the 1939 performance of black soprano Marion Anderson in front of the Lincoln Memorial, traversing the Second World War and the Civil Rights Movement of the 50s and 60s and ending during the Rodney King riots in 1990s Los Angeles, the novel tells the story of the Philadelphia-based Strom family.  Delia Daley, an African American woman marries David Strom a Jewish German physicist fleeing Nazi Germany and together they raise three extremely musical children, one of whom goes on to become a star operatic tenor. The novel explores the challenging history of both sides of this remarkable family and their nexus amidst the political and cultural tides of the USA.   

Like the novel, the opera is full of classical references and quotations masterfully woven together by Defoort.  Conducting a cast composed of vocal students from the prestigious Curtis Institute, I worked with the composer to fine tune the composition on the way to its world premiere under his direction in 2020.  

The final leg of my tour took me to the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain (NYO) of which I have been an Associate Conductor since 2016.  As part of the centennial celebrations of composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein, I worked with stage director Karen Gillingham on NYO UNLEASHED, a re-imagination of the ground-breaking Young Person's Concerts pioneered by Bernstein in the 1950s.   Under the auspices of APA's Youth Music Exchange (YMX) programme, 18-year old Invaders pannist and National Open Scholarship winner Luke Walker, joined the NYO on tenor pan and as a co-presenter of three concerts at Symphony Hall, Birmingham and the Royal Festival Hall, London.  This project has started a conversation about a modern and more accessible approach to the presentation of orchestral music in the 21st century.    Following the gala concerts, NYO Unleashed was taken to two London schools for one day each as a means of music exposure and interaction.   

This approach is similar to APA's Searchlight Programme which offers exposure not only to music, but also to acting, dance and design at schools across Trinidad and Tobago. Our shared understanding of the importance of art in youth development, has brought NYO and APA students and faculty ever closer since 2015, and the mutual benefit is becoming tangible in very exciting ways.   

UTT's Academy for the Performing Arts will present its end-of-year showcase entitled APAFEST from June 1st - 16th, 2018 at UTT's Campus at NAPA and the Lord Kitchener Auditorium. Tickets are available at the NAPA Box Office now. 

Concert Hall of the Johannesburg Philharmonic

Luke Walker (2nd from L) at the Royal Festival Hall

Luke Walker (2nd from R) with NYO Friends

NYO Play the School - Bow School, London

NYO Play the School - Skinners' Academy, London