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The George Town Public Library was filled by the sounds of brass instruments on 30 May as the Cayman Arts Festival took another important step forward in its mission to teach music to Cayman’s youth.

Under the guidance of master trumpeter Rodney Marsalis and local music educator Cody Gifford, the CAF Youth Brass Ensemble made its debut performance at the Music at the Library concert, performing as part of the CAF Brass Ensemble that also included some of the teachers involved in Cayman Arts Festival’s brass programme.

Marsalis, who is part of the famed family of American trumpeters that includes his cousins Wynton Marsalis and Branford Marsalis, has been working with the students since last year, said Cayman Arts Festival Artistic Director Glen Inanga. “This is the culmination of more than six months of hard work,” said Inanga. “To see where these students are musically compared to when they started is quite remarkable.”

Commenting on the occasion at the start of the concert, Marsalis praised the vision of the Cayman Arts Festival leadership for deciding to make improving its brass programme a priority.
“You already have an Elite String Ensemble and it’s fantastic,” he said. “Now you have an elite brass ensemble to go with it.”

Performing youth members of the CAF Youth Brass Ensemble included trumpeters Faith Mendiola-Jackson, James Macdonald, Baker Dyck, Jaheem Hayles, Daeniell Pink and Samita Ghosh; tuba player Reuben Sweetman; and trombonists Evan Moore and Ryan Nock, whose father Simon Nock played alongside him.

In addition to performing on its own, members of the CAF Youth Brass Ensemble are also part of the CAF Youth Camerata, a complete youth orchestra that made its debut in June 2023.

Music at the Library is Cayman Art Festival’s monthly series of one-hour concerts that take place in the original part of the George Town Public Library. The concerts typically feature local artists, often performing in collaboration with overseas artists or students in Cayman Arts Festival after-school music education programmes.

The programme for the brass concert included a variety of songs and including two solo performances of “Amazing Grace,” and George Gershwin’s “Someone to Watch Over Me,” by Marsalis’s friend and trumpeting colleague, Timothy Hudson. Other highlights included a medley of Michael Jackson hit songs performed by the entire ensemble and a rousing traditional New Orleans “Second Line” led by Marsalis that had ensemble members marching around the sold-out audience while playing their instruments.

The Cayman Arts Festival 2023-24 season winds up in June with an already sold out performance of “Mama Mia” by the Cayman Youth Choir on 12 June, a performance of the CAF Youth Camerata at the John Gray High School Performance Hall on 14 June, and finally another Music at the Library concert featuring Cayman’s own Beneil Miller performing with the CAF Youth Jazz students he teaches.

For more information about Cayman Arts Festival or any of the upcoming concerts, visit www.caymanartsfestival.com.