Debuting orchestrations for Caribbean song cycle
COREY MCMAKEN | The Journal Gazette
When the Manchester Symphony Orchestra performs “Songs of the Islands” this weekend, the audience will immediately note that the song cycle isn t like any classical work they have heard before.
With its Caribbean sound, “this ain t Beethoven, baby!” conductor Debra J. Lynn says with a laugh.
“Songs of the Islands” was originally written for voice and piano by composer Dominique Le Gendre, a native of Trinidad and Tobago. It starts with six Caribbean folk songs that were arranged by Le Gendre and includes six Caribbean poems set to music she composed. Sunday s performance is the premiere of orchestrations by Le Gendre and Lynn.
The Felix Roasting Co. coffee shop and bar in New York City’s SoHo neighborhood opened this year. Images courtesy of Felix Roasting Co.
While the eastern portion of the United States has some drastic cultural differences from the coastline to Appalachia, or the bustling north to the sweltering south the common love of coffee runs as deep as the waters of the North Atlantic.
Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic has been too much to bear for an untold number of cafes this year, when already slim margins were driven to their limits, and temporary closures too often became permanent ones. Yet some entrepreneurs brazenly defied that trend in 2020, opening their first ever shops or pushing forward with pre-existing expansion plans with hope for a brighter tomorrow.