Musician Roy Cape is giving back to the community of Diego Martin where he lived for 31 years, as the Roy Cape Foundation Music Schools in the Community programme will run for 12 weeks, beginning on April 12. It will culminate in a concert recital on July 8.
Speaking at the launch of the programme on Wednesday, at the Diego Martin Community Centre, Cape said musical knowledge was passed on to him and so it was only right for him to pass it on.
“It's not about me, it’s about the children. I lived in this area 31 years and I always had a strong feeling to coming back to Diego Martin. I am happy to come here. I hope people will turn out in their numbers because this is for your children’s and your children’s children’s futures.”
He shared his story of being given the choice at age ten of moving to Grenada with his grandmother or to the orphanage and choosing to go to the Belmont Orphanage, now St Dominic’s Home.
“I was saved from having to go to YTC or St Michael’s Home, I was given that opportunity, and I feel today if I can help some of the misguided youth to get onto something that can improve their lives in the future, I’m happy. Being a friend of the Black Stalin, he was always concerned about the people and I feel the same way about the young people. I was also young, and it took a harder time then than what is happening now. We hope to carry the programme to other places in TT.”
The programme is being carried out by the foundation in collaboration with the Music Literacy Trust.
Trust secretary Ian Clarke said the programme will run for 72 contact hours over the course of 12 weeks, with two-hour classes three days a week. Participants, who range in age from 13-71, will be trained in trumpet, trombone, alto and tenor saxophone, flute, clarinet, and bass, snare, and marching band drums. The tutors will be Ishmael Camejo, Errol Daniel, John Walcott, and Josiah Roberts.
Trust director Jenny Lee said the aim of the trust is to assist people who are interested in learning music, which it has been doing since its inception in 2004.
“You only have to look at the winner’s circle for Panorama, people like Seion Gomez, Amit Samaroo, Kyle Benjamin, we have assisted those people and many more who have expressed interest in learning music. Our goal is to make sure that the steel pannists of TT are able to read, write, compose their own music, so that there is a legacy of our music for future generations. We have also recorded the music of Jit Samaroo, the Pouchet Brothers (founders of All Stars) and Ray Holman, so we are building a history of the music of the people of TT.”
Lee said she had the utmost respect for and deep faith in Cape, who has trained many talented people.
“The opportunities being presented are for the young people in the community to be able to pass through the hands of the great ones, supported by teachers, parents, educators, and the government, so we can continue this work that very few other people are doing. We are committed to a cause of developing better citizens for our country
