Music Unites Jamaica launches Beethoven concert video on June 9

The concert video Jamaican Composers Salute Ludwig van Beethoven, produced by the Music Unites Jamaica Foundation (MUJF), will officially launch this Sunday on PBCJ Television.

MUJF, a non-profit organisation, is celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2024, and the video launch will be the first celebratory event offered to the public. The team, led by Austrian-born musician Rosina Christina Moder and Jamaican singer/songwriter Janine ‘Jkuhl’ Coombs, aims to showcase the great musical value of works created by composers from this island, which is globally recognised as the ‘Reggae Nation’.

The concert video presentation was created based on the originally held MUJF December 2020 virtual concert in honour of Beethoven’s 250th anniversary, which was a worldwide celebration. Due to complications with the live recording and a desire to showcase and properly document Jamaican composers and musical heritage, it was re-done.

While Jamaican audiences are already familiar with works by Jamaican composers residing on the island, Music Unites Jamaica focused this video on exposing world-renowned Jamaican composers residing overseas. Among them are Eleanor Alberga, who resides in the UK; Sharon Calcraft, who resides in Australia; composer and conductor Ted Runcie, who lives between Taiwan and Canada; pianist and composer Dr Paul Shaw, residing in the USA; and composers Andrew Marshall and Michael Sean Harris who also reside in the USA.

“This concert offers a deeply moving and entertaining mixture of works. It includes Aquifer, a mesmerising piece for electro-acoustic harp by Sharon Calcraft; an avant-garde string quartet by Eleanor Alberga that challenges and delights the senses; a heartfelt performance by Michael Sean Harris, accompanied by the dancer Neila Ebanks, interpreting his work Dis Long Time Gyal, based on the poignant Jamaican folk song. Paul Shaw pays heartfelt tribute to Jamaican folk music with his soulful piano piece based on the song Come Back Liza. Ted Runcie’s ‘Winter Evening’ features a rare and evocative combination of a duo for cello and tuba, transporting the listener to a serene landscape,” a release from MUFJ said, as it delved deeper into other performers and their works.

Among them are the finale, We Are One, performed by the Jamaica Choral Scholars, resonates deeply with its universal yearning for unity and peace and two short piano pieces by the great German composer Ludwig van Beethoven. His famous Bagatelle Für Elise, which is delicately performed by Angela Elliott’s student Alain Barrant at the elegant ballroom at King’s House, and child prodigy Kaleb Young who opens the video with a heart-warming segment of the Moonlight Sonata at the picturesque Round Hill Hotel in Montego Bay.