Michael Reckord, Contributor

Dr. William H. Chapman Nyaho speaks to the audience durig his presentation at the 2006 Classical Concert of the Embassy of the United States of America and the Jamaica America Friendship Association at the Lisa Narcisse Performing Arts Centre, Immaculte Conception High School, Constant Spring Road, Kingston 8.

For Dr. William Chapman Nyaho, a former student of internationally-renowned Jamaican pianist and composer Oswald Russell, performing in Jamaica on Saturday evening was "a dream come true."

For the audience which packed the Lisa Narcisse Performing Arts Centre, Immaculate Conception High School, to hear Dr. Nyaho in concert with four Jamaican musicians, the function was near sublime.

Throughout the two-and-a-half hour concert, the audience gave enthusiastic applause between items, sometimes even, inappropriately, between pauses within items, and, at the end, gave numerous expressions of delight at the quality of the music they had enjoyed.

Apart from Dr. Nyaho, a Ghanaian-American currently residing in Seattle, we heard Christine MacDonald (contralto), accompanied by Winston Ewart on piano, and Steven Woodham (violin), accompanied by Allison Wallace on piano. Dr. Nyaho and Mr Woodham also played together three selections for violin and piano from Gershwin's folk opera, Porgy and Bess.

Introductions

The welcome to the 2006 Classical Concert, one in a series of joint presentations of the Embassy of the United States of America and the Jamaica America Friendship Association (JAFA), was given by the Embassy's Public Affairs Officer Glenn Guimond. He also introduced the much-awarded Dr. Nyaho, who, said Mr. Guimond, frequently gives lecture-recitals throughout the U.S.A. and has done so in Jamaica.

In fact, Dr. Nyaho shifted briefly into his lecture mode as, after stating that performing in Jamaica was "a dream come true," he introduced his first suite of pieces, the English Suite in A Minor by J.S. Bach. He prepared the audience by describing the origins of the different movements of the suite. They "reflect the European diaspora," he said, and came from Germany, France and Spain. Masterfully played and alternately lively and gentle, the suite ended with a movement based on a spirited English jig.

Dr. Nyaho's final appearance included, appropriately, an Oswald Russell composition, Three Jamaican Dances. There were murmurs, nods and swaying as the familiar melodies of Sammy Plant Piece-a Corn, and Ruckumbine echoed within the item. The penultimate piece was not listed in the programme, but Dr. Nyaho said he wanted to play it as he was currently systematically promoting music of the African diaspora, hoping that their music would soon form an integral part of the world's piano recital repertoire.

The piece, Troubled Waters, by African-American composer Margaret Barnes, based on the Negro spiritual Wadin in De Water, was powerfully played and strongly applauded. Even more energy went into the final item, Sonata No. 1, op. 22, by Argentinean composer Alberto Ginastera. The demanding work was, in athletic terms, the equivalent of a 100 metres race by Asafa Powell, and, as he took his final bow, Dr. Nyaho seemed as happy as Powell would have been to win that race.

The highly enjoyable evening ended with presentations of gifts to the main performers.

The classical musicians played to an enthusiastic audience at the 2006 Classical Concert. - photos by Nathaniel Stewart