Michael Reckord, Contributor
The Jamaica College Choir in rehearsal earlier this month for their 20th anniversary season. - Junior Dowie/Staff Photographer
WHEN RANDALL Campbell, musical director of the Jamaica College Chapel Choir, is asked if he wouldn't like more time for himself, he replies, "I enjoy what I'm doing".
It is a frequent query, as Campbell not only guides the choir but also teaches French and Spanish and coaches the JC team for the annual Schools' Challenge Quiz competition.
The 40-male strong choir rehearses for at least six hours a week throughout the year except for its vacation month, August. The rehearsal time increases when necessary, as it does during the choir's December to January performance season.
This year's season began on December 11 with a concert at St. Mark's Anglican Church in Brown's Town, St. Ann. It continues with a performance at the Methodist Church in Port Antonio today and closes with a New Year's Day concert at Saxthorpe Methodist Church in St. Andrew. It is a landmark season, coming on the choir's 20th anniversary. The unit forrmally became a chapel choir and also a member of the Royal School of Church Music in 1985 and its first recital as such was of Schubert's Mass in G Major in the JC chapel.
As usual, this year the greater part of the hour-long programme consists of anthems and carols, in addition to which there is a major classical item or two. This year the classical pieces are Handel's Zadok, the Priest and the first movement of Pergolesi's mass, Magnificent.
TOUR
There won't be much of a break for the choir after the season ends before it begins preparing for its tour of St. Lucia and Barbados in April, 2006. Except for one year, since 2000 regular tours to other Caribbean islands - and enthusiastically received ones, too - have become the norm. For some boys, this is an important incentive to join the choir, says Campbell.
At home, the choir is in high demand and performs at various functions around the island throughout the year. In addition to classical items and Christmas music, the group's repertoire includes spirituals and gospel music.
Campbell admits that despite the name and the choir's mandate, which is to take part in church services, the bulk of its performances are not at the school's chapel services.
The choir now has the usual four groups of voices trebles, altos, tenors and bases. All four tenors are past students of the school and half the bass and alto sections are also old boys. The 24 trebles are currently students at JC.
Campbell says the current cohort marks an improvement on the situation when he first joined the staff in the 1980-81 school year and was asked by the principal to form a choir. He had to start off with a two-part choir of trebles and altos.
According to Campbell, the boys join the choir because it is an outlet for self-expression which is different from the 'buguyagah' music favoured by many of their contemporaries. "In the choir they realise they can make beautiful music," he opined.
He has found that most of the boys in the choir do well in their school work and he sees a causal connection - discipline. It is something he insists on for his choristers; for example, a boy can be absent from rehearsal only with a written excuse.
Jamaica College principal, Stuart Reeves, waxes eloquent on the importance of the choir to the boys, the school and the region. On the tours, he says, the choir showcases, with discipline, the "best part of Jamaican culture and education". And he has observed that the boys on the choir take that discipline from first to sixth form and then into other parts of their lives after leaving school.
MENTORS
Additionally, he sees the alumni in the choir as mentors to current students, providing the boys with an opportunity to become well-rounded.
"I've seen young men with personal challenges in whose lives the choir has made a difference. They have achieved success," he told The Sunday Gleaner. He added that being a member of the choir is "an important part of the process of the boys' education".
By 'challenges' Reeves might have been referring to the fact that choir boys come from all strata of society, some from children's homes.
Campbell now finds that his challenge is not getting boys to join the choir, but in their mastering the difficult music he might choose. It takes hours of rehearsal to get it right, he says, but it is so rewarding that some boys have expressed the desire to continue with music professionally.
Campbell's love for music started when he went to Kingston College (KC) in the early 1970s. He joined the choir and subsequently studied at KC under Barry Davis, Douglas Forrest, Gordon Appleton and Donald Morris.
Because most of the other boys in the choir played the piano, Campbell started taking piano lessons with Mrs. Violet Moodie, then later with Mrs Linnette Case. Music studies continued at Mico College with Sydney Morris, and Campbell graduated with a Teaching Certificate in Spanish and Music. At the University of the West Indies (UWI) he read Spanish, French and Mass Communication.
His teaching of music also began at KC, where he assisted the choirmaster at rehearsals. Further studies were at the Jamaica School of Music, on a part-time basis, and at Princeton University in the U.S. where he did a summer course in conducting.
Campbell says he hopes to continue his musical studies in the U.S., adding "with that, I could lift the JC chapel choir a bit more".
