Exocubs captures Ensemble title

EXOCUBS Steel Orchestra is the new Ensemble champion in the minor category of the 2004 World Steelband Music Festival. Exocubs, the junior arm of reigning National Panorama champion Exodus Steel Orchestra, climbed to victory on Friday night as competition in the Festival produced by Pan Trinbago continued at Queen’s Hall, St Ann’s. Under the direction of Desmond Waithe, Exocubs — the reigning Junior Steelband Music Festival champion — edged preliminary front-runner Stryke Stars Steel Orchestra out of the top spot by a mere one point.

Exocubs scored a total of 553 points for its rendition of the test piece “The Carnival Is Over” and its tune-of-choice “Aldwyn” (a paraphrase of Lord Kitchener’s “Symphony In G”). Stryke Stars, led by Kenneth Guppy, earned 552 points. Jim Webb’s “Up Up and Away,” was its tune-of-choice. In the quartet category the Pan Family Steel Orchestra was declared the victor. Led by patriarch Cary Codrington, the Pan Family, which also comprised Keisha (the festival’s champion soloist) Khari and Kareem took home the top award for its fine performance of Rossini’s “Williams Tell.” Second place went to unattached Kenneth Joseph, Jamal Lewis, Bridgid Haynes and Seone Vialva for their rendition of Franz Von Suppe’s “Poet and Peasants.” Joseph interpreted this selection for the quartet.

Friday’s instalment of the Festival series produced an interesting development when Southpaw Isle Steelband, the lone representative from the United States in this category, featured a soprano named Jocklyn Feken in its performance of the tune-of-choice “Bachianas Brasileiras No 5,” by Heitor Villa-Lobos. Members of the audience wore shocked expressions on their faces when the singer took the spotlight to offer a vocal presentation accompanied by the steelband. Many felt the band had missed its connecting flight to another Music Festival elsewhere in the world, but the small Queen’s Hall audience gave Southpaw Isle a lusty applause for its musical efforts.

The band was slotted in eighth position with a score of 509 points. There were only eight contestants in this category. Other foreign challengers at the festival were UWI Panoridim from Jamaica, which competed in the Ensemble category and placed seventh. Its repertoire included the test piece and “Welcome to Cuba” from Die another Day, composed by David Arnold and Richard Edwards. In the quartet segment of the programme, performances were heard from Women in Steel and Florida Memorial College, both from the United States of America. The latter outfit chose Freddie Harris’ “The New Children of the World,” while Florida Memorial College gave its rendition of “Bachianas Brasileras,” by Heitor Villa-Lobos. UWI Panoridim also had a representative in the quartet class. Bach’s “Violin Concerto” was its tune-of-choice.