26271: Hillebrand (news) Haiti - Classical Music (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Makotoljh@aol.com


As  many flee Haiti, an orchestra's tour brings balm
By  Amy Bracken | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor
CAP-HAITIEN, HAITI - It hardly seemed the  time or place for an international
symphonic tour.
In recent months in Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, kidnappings,
carjackings, and murders have been on the rise - increasingly targeting
foreigners. A
Canadian development expert was seized in May, and later released.  The US
Embassy cautioned Americans to stay away, and withdrew nonessential
personnel. In
July, Haitians were shocked when a Haitian journalist not only was
kidnapped, but then was tortured and murdered.
Virtually the only foreigners entering the Caribbean nation are UN
peacekeepers, now numbering more than 8,000.
Yet in August, musicians from Austria's Arpeggione Orchestra and the US
Symphony of the Americas (SOA) flew from Florida to Cap- Haitien for a week-
long
tour that took them to venues ranging from movie theaters to a small concrete
church.
Safety was a concern. But naysayers also argued that the orchestra would find
 it hard to move around in a country where roads are poor. Others said that
Haitians wouldn't warm to classical music.
Still, the orchestra persevered. The visit "made us stronger in our souls,"
says Irakli Gogibedaschwili, Arpeggione's leader, calling it one of the most
important experiences in his group's 15 years. "We played [in Labadee], in
this  little village, in this little church, like we were in Carnegie Hall ...
because  we felt this was a very big moment of our lives."
The trip grew out of a casual encounter. Last spring, James Brooks-Bruzzese,
conductor of the SOA, sat next to Eddy Remy at a Rotary Club meeting in Fort
Lauderdale, Fla. He told Mr. Remy - president of Fort Lauderdale-Cap-Haitien
Sister Cities - about Summerfest, when the SOA performs with a European
orchestra in Florida and two Latin American countries. Remy invited the group
to
Haiti.
In some ways, the invitation marked a watershed for Remy, who moved to the US
 from Haiti as a child and grew up thinking his birth country was a place to
avoid.
But five years ago, his grandmother died. A New Yorker, her wish to be buried
 in Haiti impelled Remy to return - and to reassess his homeland.
"This is an incredible country," he says, "and all that I'd been hearing for
the 30-something years of my life that I was out of the country was not the
reality."
Still, Haiti's hold on security is tenuous. Last January, it was poised to
celebrate its 200th anniversary as the world's first black nation, born out of
a  victory over slavery and French rule.
But violence was mounting. Dozens of foreign musical groups canceled
performances. A day of pride was overtaken by shootings and burning
barricades.
A year later, nonetheless, the orchestra decided to take the plunge -
deciding to visit Haiti's far safer northern region.
The trip was not without hitches. When the group's charter plane proved too
small, members who were not musicians stayed behind a day, allowing
instruments  to spill over into seats and the plane's one bathroom. A trip to
the
19th-century fortress La Citadelle was canceled because of the heat.
Harrowing
roads posed a threat to delicate instruments.
The group's participation in one concert - in conjunction with Tropicana,
which plays Konpa Direk, Haitian big-band music - was canceled because of
patchy
 phone communications, disappointing some of the estimated 2,000 people who
showed up.
And some musicians were taken aback by its extreme poverty. "I understood for
 the first time what it means 'to not believe your eyes,' " says Hungarian
violinist Toth Tamas.
Despite the obstacles, the group says the trip was a feat.
"When you think about the logistics of bringing a symphony orchestra to
Cap-Haitien, they really look impossible," Remy says. "Every night I go to
sleep
here, I'm asking myself, how in the world are we pulling this off? But it's
happening!"
For Haitians, it was equally amazing. Band leader François Levy wrote scores
for the orchestra to play with a voodoo "roots" band. "People abroad think
Haiti  is only bad things," says Mr. Levy, who had never worked with
classical
musicians before, "and I think a cultural exchange is a great way to make
people  know exactly what Haitians have, what the country is all about."
The final performance of the Levy-Brooks-Bruzzese troupe took place in the
fishing village of Labadee. When electricity comes on a few hours daily, boom
boxes blast music everywhere, and villagers shimmy and shake as they go about
their work. The orchestra arrived on rickety wooden outboards, drawing
curious  gazes.
The venue, a small church, is a concrete structure with wooden pews. The
audience of about 100 grew steadily, with villagers filling the floor and
even
open windows.
A mother nursed her baby. A toddler asked about the musicians. Muscular
20-somethings in tank-tops and do-rags clapped vigorously. Brooks-Bruzzese
later
said one approached him afterward with tears in his eyes.
By the end, more than 200 people had squeezed in for their first orchestral
concert. And the musicians, feeling victorious, joined in celebration later by
 planting trees to the beat of voodoo  drums.

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