Avia Ustanny, Outlook writer
"Come Miss Claire
Tek Baakra off yu head me dear
Come dis way Miss Flo
Evening Breeze a Blow"
BORN WITH the voice of a jazz crooning angel, Charmaine Limonius, multi-talented, globe trotting with the United Nations, likes nothing so much as sitting down with her guitar before an appreciative audience, strumming and singing.
A particular favourite is 'Evening Time', a song composed in the folk idiom by Barbara Ferland for the Jamaican Pantomime 'Busha Bluebeard' in the late 1950s and which, as she sings, is as evocative today to release from hard days work, as at any other time in the last century.
Limonius, who has worked and lived in several countries abroad, describes the yearning that expatriate Jamaicans often have, feelings which are, in part, eased by hearing music from home. Her CDs have been prepared expressly for these and others who love the folk forms.
Her own yearning for the island made her grab quickly at the opportunity to return home in 2000, when the United Nations implemented a new policy off-site employment. She came home after over 20 years abroad.
Now resident in Kingston, she receives documents in French, English and Spanish online and then returns them by express mail. She travels at least three times a year for special meetings and for the more demanding period from September to November when the United Nation's General Assembly is in session.
Limonius was a political officer with the UN, working as a peacekeeping officer in several locations around the globe. Her switch to editing facilitated a more flexible lifestyle which made more room for music. It is a dream come true. Charmaine, one of seven children born to Dudley and Veronica Limonius in St. Ann, began singing quite early after her teachers and family discovered her talent and regularly singled her out to perform solo pieces at school and at family functions.
Solace in music
At age 13, her family migrated to New York and she recalls finding solace in music. When overwhelmed by her surroundings, she would spend hours on end with her ear pressed to the radio and filled notebook after notebook with the lyrics to hundreds of songs, learning scores of them by heart in the process.
For her 15th birthday, her parents granted her wish to have a guitar and she began to teach herself the basics, in order to accompany herself singing. Later, she began to try her hand at writing songs of her own. In the years that followed, Charmaine began to receive requests to sing at weddings, funerals and social events. She became involved in her local church and later became the leader of the folk group there.
Charmaine returned home briefly after completing her programme in Spanish and Portuguese at the City University of New York, to teach Spanish at Manning's High School in Savanna-la-Mar, Westmoreland. There, she wasted no time in teaching her students songs in that language. She also teamed up with fellow musician teachers as a vocalist in the 'Chalk & Duster' band. During that period, Charmaine also sang soprano with the 'Westmoreland Singers', under the musical direction of Bob Austin.
She applied to the United Nations in the hope of discovering a more challenging way of using her talent in languages. She was also able to study additional languages absolutely free. She became proficient in French and completed a master's degree in International Relations in Germany (also learning the language).
Back in the USA, as a United Nations staff member, Charmaine wasted no time in finding an outlet for her musical talent in the Big Apple. She became a soprano in the small, classical 'Parnassus Choir' and continued to sing at social events, upon request. For the first time in her life, she decided to take voice lessons and became a student of Hungarian former Metropolitan Opera singer, Lily Eszterag. She still takes class at Ms. Eszterag's studio whenever she is in New York.
While studying in Germany, Charmaine had been invited to sing with a local (Berlin) rock band and later performed a successful run of the band leader's original musical, 'Die Grasoper' in Berlin.
United Nations Singers
Upon her return to New York, Charmaine was recruited by the United Nations Singers, then under the direction of acclaimed conductor John L. Motley, and quickly became one of the group's soloists. She also joined the well-known classical choir, The Greenwich Village Singers, directed by Mark Mangini.
In the 90s, while serving as a political officer with the United Nations peacekeeping missions in El Salvador and Guatemala, Charmaine got together with local composers and UN colleagues to play music and to perform on several occasions.
In Guatemala, she joined other musicians to form the band 'Quimera' and they recorded a CD of the same name. During that time, Chairmaine flew back and forth from Florida where, with producer Limo (of Breeze International) she recorded her first CD, entitled 'Evening Time'. The project, done mainly "for fun", was completed in 1999.
While in New York in the late 90s, she sang again under the baton of Maestro Motley, this time with the City University of New York's City College Community Choir where, as usual, she featured as a soloist. In addition to performing at social events, she was a guest artist with the New York-based vintage Panamanian salsa band 'Love, Warmth and Affection', singing at its 25th anniversary friendship ball in Houston, Texas, and at several other events in New York.
Since returning to Jamaica, Charmaine has produced two CDs of well-known Caribbean (mostly Jamaican) folksongs ('Sweet Jamaica') and has gradually begun to let her voice be heard.
One of the most recent members of the Jamaica Association of Vintage Artistes and Affiliates (JAVAA), which she calls her "new family", Charmaine has been on stage at JAVAA Jammin' and has performed at several other venues in Kingston.
The single woman is overjoyed to be back home.
"Help dung ya
After yu nuh beas a burden sah
Res yuself at ease
Feel the evening breeze.
Evening Time."
