18-year-old Nap’s boy is best organist

MARIO CALLENDER is the best organist in this year’s 26th Biennial Trinidad and Tobago Music Festival. At the start of “Championship Week,” competition, held at the Tranquillity Methodist Church, Port-of-Spain, yesterday morning, Callender, 18, edged out his lone rival Diamanda Garnes, 24, for the Jean Padmore George Trophy, when he appeared before adjudicators Dr Douglas Miller (American) and Prof Melville James Hurst (Canadian). There were two classes on the programme sponsored by Scotia Bank, bpTT and the Ministry of Community Development and Culture. The audience, first heard performances in Class 87a — Organ Solo, in which contestants played the test piece “Voluntary in G — Andante, Allegro and Largo Andante,” by M Greene. Calender and Garnes were the contenders.

Then came Class 87b — Organ Solo. The test piece for that class was “Tuba Tune,” by Lang. Callender was the lone contestant. In the end, Callender’s foot techniques impressed the adjudicators and ultimately earned him the top prize. According to Dr Miller: “Mario’s development of the pedal technique was what made the difference in the performances. His use of the pedal during his performance gave the music a lot of contrast. They are both pianists. While the piano and organ seemed very much alike, these are different instruments. The organ has different registers and depending on one’s level of development, its going to affect their performance for the better.” Callender will appear in at least six other championship classes this week.

They include vocal solo, duet and trio as well as the choir class with his school Naparima College. While these instrumentalists brought the music component to the morning’s festival programme, yesterday, it was the adjudicators who whipped up the suspense. The lengthy process of deliberation applied by Dr Miller and Prof Hurst, between performances and at the end of the competition, was testimony of the high standard of performances offered and signalled the difficulty in announcing the award recipient. Presiding over his first round of competition in Port-of-Spain, following his stints in Tobago and San Fernando earlier in the festival, Prof Hurst applauded the turnout of the audience on a Monday morning to witness this class.

He said: “I’m impressed so many people would come out on a Monday morning to hear the organ. There are two million people in Toronto and I don’t think we would get so many of them to come to hear the organ on a Monday. Dr Miller, on the other hand, lauded the inclusion of an organ category in the festival. He said: “We have a rich history of organ playing traditions in the US. But the number and the quality of organists in the US has declined compared to 30 years ago. That’s because of modern day influences and media.”