Danielle Williams Conveying the Caribbean to the world through classical music

Viewed as centred on the lives of monarchs and other heroes of lore, or fallen women and ill-fated lovers, opera, for many people, brings to mind the image of a full-bodied Viking woman, screeching away at the top of her lungs, largely locally unrelatable and very much removed from a Caribbean experience.

Young Trinbagonian soprano, Danielle Williams begs to differ as she talks to WMN about her passion for opera, her plans to advance the art of vocal teaching in the Caribbean, the existing synergy between classical and Caribbean musical artforms and the potential for even more cross-genre collaboration.

Williams recalls the moment that opera first lit a fire inside of her, performing Carmina Burana with the Marionettes Chorale as a child. “There was something so evocative about the music, the power to capture a moment in time and to tell stories that really gripped me.” She describes how she was powerfully drawn music’s ability to illustrate actions and emotions.

Her passion quickly grew and singing became a great pastime as she took voice lessons, performed with the Bishop Anstey High School Choir and won multiple championships at Music Festival, but developing what began as a hobby into a lifestyle and principal focus posed somewhat of a challenge.

“It really took a lot of courage for me to pursue my dreams: I come from quite a traditional family, [where] I was to be this singing doctor,” she chuckles. So Williams successfully completed her BSc in Biochemistry and Nutritional Sciences and found work in the fields of research, public health and later on, marketing.

“I love creating,” the young vocalist gushes, “so I was able to create and implement nutrition and physical activity interventions.” That way, Williams was able to satisfy her need for creativity and helping others but, as with most genuine passions, her love affair with music and singing was not to be suppressed. “At the end of the day, I realised that I needed to do this for me.” After seriously committing to her art, there was no turning back for Williams, who graduated from the University of Trinidad and Tobago with an Artist Diploma in Voice in 2015, all the while preparing demanding roles and subsequently thrilling audiences with her depictions of Prince Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus and Cosette in Les Miserables, among others. During the year of her graduation, Williams took her pursuit of vocal study to the next level, enrolling in the prestigious Opera Studio programme at the H?rn?sands F?lkh?gskola in Sweden, where she has made great strides.

She describes the programme as “very, very intense,” telling WMN that the curriculum consists of much more than vocal training.

Classes in Shakespeare, vocal science and even tai chi comprise the content of the taxing programme. She explains that the tai chi, in particular, has helped in building strength to allow her to better support her voice.

“I’m essentially learning a trade,” Williams says.

“Both the art and the science are very important.

Furthermore, it appears that her musical life has truly brought her full circle as she participated in her school’s performance of Carmina Burana, the work that started it all.

With one more year in Sweden, what’s the next step for the young soprano? When asked if she’d prefer to be here or abroad, Williams responded that her ideal would be to travel between places.

“I’d like to advance vocal science and pedagogy in the Caribbean region. There are so many talented singers that we could use vocal science more and the art of [voice] teaching to help improve [artists’] international viability. I would like to have my own vocal practice here and facilitate workshops with foreign professionals.” With those ideas in mind, she plans to complete her masters and doctorate in vocal pedagogy, paving the way for her to become singing doctor.

While she would draw upon her passion for helping others that she exercised in her previous line of work, Williams acknowledged the importance for her to build her career abroad as a singer. “Very few operas are put on here so I won’t be able to grow and perform as much in opera if I stay in Trinidad.” Additionally, of particular interest to Williams is building a resource of classical music, the content of which is drawn from the Caribbean experience. Most classical art songs are written in either Italian, German or French and even if they’re written in English, the experience from which they’ve been taken is often European. Williams, as a Caribbean opera singer expressed her interest in seeing more Caribbean art songs, telling WMN that there is, in fact, real interest about our music and culture abroad.

“I’m actually planning a collaboration which a steelpan orchestra in Sweden.” She continues, “A friend of mine who is a composer asked about Caribbean music and actually composed a piece for wind instruments called ‘Trinidad’.

“I personally didn’t think that the piece quite captured our essence, which is very difficult to do. But it’s important that people are curious about us beyond the exoticism and this is the story that I would like to tell the world,” she explains, resolute.

Her desire to have the “essence” of Caribbean music and culture translated into a classical idiom, is an undertaking that she admits poses limitations, among them, limited instrumentation and the risk of “watering down genres.” With a deep admiration for local composers and arrangers Etienne Charles, Desmond Waithe, Roger Henry and Dominique Le Gendre, whose compositions and arrangements Williams herself performed at a local showcase of Le Gendre’s pieces in July, she is driven to finding her own way to convey the spirit and energy of her home through the genre that she has chosen as her mainstay.

She is of the firm belief that it is possible to find and establish a career in the arts. “Our society needs those models. We can’t all be doctors, lawyers, teachers or bankers. There must be space in society for artists.” Williams will collaborate with local vocalists, among them, Haitian tenor, Jude Balthazar, instrumentalists and artisan chocolatiers, painters and graphic designers for Sip and Savour, a four-course afternoon tea, held at the Normandie Hotel yesterday and today.