On Friday, October 25th, the Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School’s (ALHCS) Concert Band traveled to St Maarten at the invitation of the Charlotte Brookson Academy (CBA).
The invitation came as a result of the phenomenal success of the recent local staging of the Music Department’s flagship annual event, Sound Review, which featured the ALHCS Concert Band and Jazz Ensemble. The young musicians, under the leadership of Band Director Mr. Lennox Vanterpool, accompanied by Head of Music, Mrs. Kimba Southwell, along with a group of parents and well-wishers, were warmly greeted and received by their St Maarten counterparts.
The band played with its usual exuberance and matured flare to regularly punctuated applause and standing ovations from the awestruck audience that was made up mainly of students and teachers of the CBA. Music Director, Ms. Claudia Forsythe and Principal, Dr. Will Moreland, of the CBA, spoke with unreserved appreciation and praise for the ALHCS young music ambassadors.
Ms. Forsythe expressed: “Upon hearing of the good work that Mr. Vanterpool is doing with the band in Anguilla, we thought it would be a wonderful idea to have the band here so that we too can enjoy their performances. Today, that desire is a wonderful reality.”
Melissa Hamm, an Anguillian educator who currently serves as Coordinator of the Performing Arts Division at the CBA, also came in for high commendation for her work in collaborating with Mrs. Kimba Southwell to bring the event to fruition.
The principal of the ALHCS, Rita Celestine Carty, expressed her appreciation to the ALHCS Music Department for its commendable initiative and thanked the CBA for its cordial invitation — and for developing partnership in the areas of music and the performing arts.
Staff Reporter, James R. Harrigan
