5 minute read
Love, Hope, and the anniversary of a 25-year Lydian Legacy
Unless you avidly follow The Lydians, you would be surprised to know that this concert title is 25 years old. The show we present to you this year shares its name with the first Christmas Production The Lydians presented which gave a formal title to our valued musical arm The Lydian Steel - in 1997.
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Though not quite the year of its founding, this 2022 also marks the concert series performance of The Lydian Steel's 25th Anniversary recital Seasons of Steel, which saw audiences locally, and as a featured programme of the 2022 Gemonites Moods of Pan festival in Antigua and Barbuda. Quite an auspicious deferral. And what a silver Jubilee this year has been! From TT60 Independence celebrations to performances for iconic landmark events throughout the year, The Steel remains an iconic and indispensable part of what makes us The Lydians as an ensemble and a community.
“Angels Bending near the Earth” is a line taken from the American Christmas carol It Came Upon the Midnight Clear by Edmund Sears. It is rare for several noteworthy reasons, one of which has always drawn a certain sort of fascination – it makes no mention of Christ, the newborn babe, or of the Saviour’s mission.
The lyrics concern themselves only with one aspect: The Angelic request for peace on Earth.
How sublime that a piece so tied to the season, seeks only to hold us all in that moment beyond fear, worry, doubt, hate, and turmoil. It asks us simply to gather in ‘solemn stillness’ and ‘hear the angels sing.’
Lydian Angels of Earth and Beyond
This year, we offer this production in celebration of two of the Angels that have dwelt among us and have indelibly made their mark on the hearts, souls, abilities, growth, and psyches of our communion of artists: Living with us, the indomitable icon that is Mrs Lindy-Ann Bodden-Ritch, and the now deceased powerhouse that was Janine Charles-Farray.
Lindy-Ann, who is affectionately and properly called Ms Ritch until she tells you otherwise – (and even then), has been a stalwart presence in the Trinbagonian musical landscape. A nurturing but exacting taskmaster, she is seldom in an artistic space not doling out advice or a critique for the improvement of the artist who toiled (often sweating bullets) in her presence. Ms Ritch, described by lifelong friend Pat Bishop as “dutiful, diligent and direct,” has often been the catalyst for a young artist’s reckoning with their rehearsal process. If you could get a smile or a nod you were on cloud 9 – and if you got applause or a succinct “good,” you were in the presence of the heavenly host themselves!
Mrs. Lindy-Ann Bodden-Ritch
So many artists and creative ensembles owe her debts of gratitude for her time, indulgence, input, support, and encouragement. In this production, the legacy of her influence and hand in the development of the artists extends beyond the voices, compositional styles, and steel piano score adaptation techniques, that her loving short burst (re)buffs have shaped – we are also joined by dancers who she has accompanied in ballet classes and examinations, seated at the upright pianos in the studios of the Caribbean School of Dancing.
We Love you Ms Ritch!
Janine, the passionate fire of progress and development. A candle snuffed well before her time; Janine was a dynamo who only seemed to have one setting: firing on all cylinders. In her Lydian life, there was rarely any aspect of our existence she did not have an enthusiastic, considerate, and measured hand in – and if the latter was not the case, and fault expressed genuinely? A ready apology and plans to move forward and adjust to make all parties satisfied with the result.
As a teenager fresh to The Lydians, and a big fan of technology, Janine began the task of documenting the rehearsals processes, gently shoving a voice recorder, or a camera, or armed with a notepad making notes at Pat Bishop, or a senior member or a creative collaborator, eager to find out how they came to the space, their process and how and why they did what they did. With time this penchant expanded into her offering insight and advice as well, ever ready to help you progress and develop as an artist, an entrepreneur, a policy proposal writer and a creative on a tangent. An emerging strategic mind also saw her helping to position the group in accessible ways – creating the first website; organising photo shoots and archival recordings; updating and digitising archives and seeking out footage from far-flung places, consolidating the A/V presence of The Lydians – often at personal cost. You would be hard-pressed to find someone who was more invested in the sustainable and positive trajectory and branding of The Lydians.
Janine Charles-Farray
As a phenomenal reluctant-to-becalled-so-but-was Mezzo-Soprano, Janine was also one of the senior soloists who lent not only her inimitable commanding voice to solo work and the choral sound, but also in service to the work of supporting young artists whether by passing on pedagogy tips and coaching, or volunteering to be the muse for aspiring composers and arrangers who took their work to the ensemble. Her loss remains one we are reckoning with and feel daily.
Fierce in their defence, jubilant in their support, strong in their conviction, yet always happy to be surprised by good. May we continue to flourish in the spirit of their sustenance as they live to teach and inspire or have passed to serve now as support and example.
Deo Gratias!
Carl Anthony Hines
December 2022
