Anguillians should be aware that this island now possesses a Steinway Grand piano which was commissioned with impressive performances by several young pianists at the ALHCS Campus B Auditorium on January 17th 2008. At the piano’s inaugural concert performance at the same venue on January 19th 2008, it was described as “the best instrument in the Caribbean” by one well-qualified to make that determination – International Concert Pianist Dr. Ray Luck – who has performed in various Caribbean countries, in several music capitals of the world, and on five continents. Among the many pianists in the audience that evening, one of them – Mrs. Joycelynne Ashby – was fittingly recognized as “the Dean of Anguilla’s Music Teachers.” She, it was said, has taught more than half of Anguilla’s music teachers among her many students, and therefore has impacted music education here in a tremendous way. Her students were (and still are) taught on her beloved Cramer piano, which she came to own under circumstances which are no less miraculous than those under which Anguilla obtained its Steinway Grand.
On the evening the Steinway Grand was commissioned, I spoke on behalf of the Social Security Board (SSB), which had contributed the greater part of the funds raised to purchase the piano. I commented on how appropriate it was that the piano’s commissioning was in the week in which we celebrate the (January 15th) birthday of that great dreamer Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., because it was the realization of a shared dream going back many years. The idea of the SSB purchasing a grand piano, to be housed in the Teachers Resource Centre Auditorium, was first raised by its Chairman Mr. Fabian Fahie while delivering the inaugural SSB Walter G. Hodge Memorial Lecture in 2001. That night, Mrs. Olive Hodge, the widow of the late Walter G. Hodge, donated in his memory the first funds towards its purchase. The Music Teachers Association (MTA) subsequently approached the SSB to fund (through its Social Security Development Fund) the purchase of a grand piano as part of its general support for music development on the island. The SSB pledged to collaborate with the Music Teachers but challenged them to raise as much funds as they could. To their credit, they diligently set out to do that.
Fast-forward to an extra-ordinary conversation at the Tranquility Jazz Festival in November 2006 between Mr. Lennox Vanterpool of the MTA, Honourable Victor Banks, Minister for Social Security, Mr. Fabian Fahie and myself. Lennox raised the possibility of the brand new Steinway Grand on the stage staying in Anguilla if an amount could be paid to the Steinway representative Mr. Michael Lipnicki sufficient to prevent him from shipping it back to the United States the next day, after its brief loan to the Jazz Festival organizers. The prospect of Anguilla getting not just a grand piano but a concert grand piano made by Steinway, for over 150 years acknowledged as the makers of the world’s finest pianos, galvanized us to decisive action. Following on-the-spot negotiations between Mr. Lipnicki, Lennox and myself, a gentleman’s agreement was made to the purchase at a significantly lower price than Lennox and I could have ever imagined. Lennox reminds me that he called me the following morning, with Mr. Lipnicki apparently getting cold feet about releasing the piano at such a price and to virtual strangers without payment or even a written agreement. He says my response “Why are you wasting time on the phone? Man get off the phone and go get our piano!” apparently convinced Mr. Lipnicki of our resolve, and so the piano was delivered to the Teacher’s Resource Centre Auditorium post-haste! I recall almost getting a heart attack when I turned up to witness its arrival and saw this huge case dangling from a crane perilously close to the entrance columns. Fearing the piano would surely be smashed to bits, and without regard for my own safety, I grabbed hold attempting to steady it. It was only then that I discovered that the case was in fact being removed, empty, for the piano was already inside the building with Lennox beaming over it as if it were his new-born baby! While the decision still needed to be ratified formally and payment actually had to be made, the Steinway Grand was now ours! (After all, isn’t it said that possession is nine-tenths of the law?) 🙂
Having experienced the thrill of that purchase, I can better relate to Mrs. Ashby’s joy as she shared with me the miracle of her own piano purchase over twenty-five years ago. But first, something about this wonderful lady who has lived in Anguilla for more than thirty years now. She came from a musical family in Barbados, her mother having insisted that she and her siblings learn to play the piano. Over the years she had seven music teachers, took and passed exams from grades six to eight, but says she never thought at that time that she would be capable of becoming a music teacher herself. She came to Anguilla in the 1970’s with her husband Pastor William Ashby to establish the Bethany Gospel Hall in Stoney Ground. Prior to this, while living in St. Kitts for thirteen years she helped a Mrs. Crawford prepare some children for music exams and realized that there was “something” within her – a gift from God for teaching music.
While I coaxed the story of her piano out of her, she sat at it and played passionately and beautifully the hymn “Nearer and nearer draws the time” and explained its theology based on Habakkuk 2:14 “the earth shall be filled with the glory of God as the waters cover the sea”. Upon coming to Anguilla she taught Music a bit at the High School, and then people asked her to teach their children, so she worked alongside other piano teachers who included Teacher Ruby (Carter), Mrs. Agnes Maynard, Teacher Steph (Hodge), and Teacher Eudora (Hughes). Her early students included Ash Hodge, Monica Harrigan and Lennox Vanterpool. Then she read an article about exams of the Royal Schools of Music (RSM) being held in St. Maarten (through Mrs. Jean Hodge, the wife of the Methodist Minister there) so she went over to take a look and asked “why not in Anguilla?” She wrote to the RSM Board right away and the response was if she could present ten students, they would come and conduct exams here. So between the teachers ten students were found, and the RSM examiners came to Anguilla – in May 1981, and they still come today. Those first exams produced all passes, including distinctions for her students Ash and Lennox, and Nigel Ipinson-Fleming (taught by Teacher Ruby). Subsequently, she says, Anguilla has produced many other excellent students over the years, Lois Hazell, Kimba Carty (Southwell), Monifa Fahie and Garson Kelsick come to mind, but her voice drops to a whisper as she mentions with obvious pride Condon Richardson (now Dr. Richardson) who was brought to her because of her exceptional talent. She prepared Condon for her first exam at Grade 4, and she reached Grade 8 with distinction by age 16, a remarkable achievement which has not been matched in Anguilla!
But how did she get this piano – which she obviously needed if she was to be a music teacher? It began with her explaining her need to a visiting Pastor, who made a donation of US$57. Soon after this she went to Barbados. On the second day there she was invited to a luncheon and was seated next to an organist whom she had known when she taught music briefly at St. Michael’s High School. He said he knew someone who was selling a piano. Suddenly she was no longer interested in lunch, and left as soon as she could, telephoned the lady and arranged to see the piano the following day. So she did, it was a little run down but, as she said “I knew it was mine, never mind I didn’t have the money, I said I would take it.” She went home and told her Aunt (her second mother she calls her) who the next day (she thinks it was her birthday) gave her a gift of half the money needed! She then rang the lady and said she will take the piano as she had half the money. When the owner said she wanted all, Mrs. Ashby said ok, she would get the rest, although she realized she would have to return to Anguilla and still didn’t have it. Then, there was a knock on her bedroom door and her Aunt told her to get dressed as they were going to the bank to get the rest of the money for the piano! So she got the money and called the lady, who told her to pay it to her uncle living nearby and get a receipt from him, which she did. She now had paid for HER piano, but how was she to get it to Anguilla?
She recounts how she called a shipping company which charged a sum she could never afford, just to ship it to St. Kitts. So she had to leave the piano and return home, but at least now it was hers! One day she met her friend Captain Zilphus Fleming and explained her dilemma, he then said he would contact his friend in Barbados who had a ship. A few weeks later Captain Zilphus told her the piano was here in Customs. And there it was, not even crated but covered in plastic! She learned that there was a piano tuner visiting from Antigua that same day so she contacted him. He told her that it was so run-down that he had to tune it three times – and she paid him US$57, the original US$57 donation which she still had! Much later she met Captain Zilphus and asked him how much she owed on the freight. He said “give me EC$75” and the transaction was done! “When God is in the thing, even the most expensive can be afforded,” she exclaims, “To God be the glory, the honour and the praise!”
The Cramer piano still plays beautifully today, though, as she says, it is getting old. The Music Examiners comment on the quality of its music, and Mrs. Ashby still plays often, in fact she still does pieces to be assessed by the Examiners. The piano has been used extensively in church and in preparing music students, and has travelled for exams and recitals to the Valley Methodist Church Annex, the Ruthwill Auditorium (upstairs and downstairs), and even to a home in North Hill, Mrs. Ashby says. Then she adds one more fascinating twist in this “Tale of Two Pianos.” Her uncle, Mr. Edward Pilgrim, who represented the Royal School of Music in Guyana just as she represents that School in Anguilla today, once taught Mathematics to a young student at the school where he was headmaster. That student would develop into the International Concert Pianist who masterfully played Anguilla’s own Steinway Grand in its first concert performance – Dr. Ray Luck!
During that concert’s intermission, several young Anguillian pianists: Kyle Hodge; Ojeda Vanterpool; Conlloyd Gumbs; Cordane Richardson; Voss Harrigan; Shaumelle Hodge and Kennida Vanterpool, impressed tremendously as they too played pieces on the Steinway Grand. Their music teachers, “the Dean of Music Teachers” Mrs. Joycelynne Ashby and the new generation of music teachers: Lennox Vanterpool; Lois Hazell-Carbon; Daphne Jacobs-Richardson; Irena Kaufman-Brookes and Kimba Southwell respectively, as well as the rest of us in the audience, could be forgiven if we closed our eyes for a moment and dreamed of the day they too become international concert pianists!
