ESHS Spring Concert set for May 13: Barzey

Head of the Elmore Stoutt High School (ESHS) Music Programme, Magdalene Barzey

By MERRICK ANDREWS, Online News Editor

(JTV News) — Head of the Elmore Stoutt High School (ESHS) Music Programme, Magdalene Barzey, has announced that the institution’s annual Spring Concert is scheduled to take place on May 13 at the Eileen Parsons Auditorium at the H. Lavity Stoutt Community College.

Brazey made the disclosure on Wednesday during the official handing-over ceremony for the donation of 62 new musical instruments — two bass guitars, seven alto saxophones, 15 clarinets, 15 flutes, five trombones, three tenor saxophones, and 15 trumpets — from Maples and Calder law firm to the ESHS Music Programme.

Maples and Calder has been instrumental over the past five years in helping to fund the construction of the ESHS music classrooms and equip the music programme, among other assistance.

Barzey said the music programme has come a far way, from using tents and playing on the dirt to having classrooms, and like other officials at the ceremony, thanked the Maple Group profusely for the ongoing support.

The music teacher said several ninth graders have only recently joined the band, having little time to prepare, yet they did a “phenomenal job.” During the ceremony, she asked those who recently joined to stand up to get a round of applause.

“The students have had a lot to overcome with years of not being able to play, not being able to handle an instrument, and they’ve had to push themselves really hard and so it has been a very great achievement for them,” she said.

She said the Steel Pan and Jazz bands performed really well at the recent Science Fair. And if you missed them, the Spring Concert will be another opportunity to see them perform.

“If you were at the Science Fair, you would have gotten a little sample. The Steel Pan played and the Jazz Band played,” she noted. “And the Jazz Band only restarted this term so they really pushed themselves as well. They did a phenomenal job. But if you weren’t at the Science Fair [and] you weren’t able to see them, our Spring concert is going to be on the 13th of May at the Eileen Parsons Auditorium.”

She encouraged everyone to come out and support the students and the concert.

“So please, please come, check out the concert. You get to hear all of the groups and see what the students have been doing. They have been pushing themselves, they have been working really hard,” Barzey said.

The annual Spring Concert, also known as the Elmore Stoutt High School Bands and Choir Concert, usually features the junior and senior concert bands, junior and senior steel bands, fungi band choir, and HLSCC Jazz Ensemble, among others.