Published:Friday 12:22 AM
Browns Town High School in St Ann has had a rich legacy in music, from having the top school band in St Ann in years gone by, which has produced the likes of Digicel Rising Stars winner for 2018, Tasha Gay Solomon, and Celicia Ellis, who finished second in 2019.
The past few years have seen a downturn in fortunes for various reasons, but with a donation of musical equipment from Japanese reggae producers, Kaeru Studio, on Monday, Principal Alfred Thomas is expecting the assistance will help the school’s music programme to return to its former glory.
The donation of four keyboards, two acoustic guitars, a conga drum, and a xylophone was made by Natsumi Nagamuri, a Japanese volunteer and representative of the non-profit group, Link Up JaJa, who had also made a donation of musical instruments to Aabuthnott Gallimore High School in March.
“Getting these musical instruments will help us in the rebuilding of our musical programme so that once again we can be a force in the performing arts,” Thomas, said.
He added, “Over the last couple of years our music programme has taken a dip. We are rebuilding the band, and so these instruments that we’ve gotten will be used in our music classes, the teaching of music and so we’re hoping that out of that will come a new cadre of musicians.
“The past bands we had, all the student musicians who were in those bands are now playing (professionally) for other bands. And the lead singers for those bands have done very well in the Rising Stars competition. We’ve had a Rising Star winner (Tasha Gay) and a Rising Star runner-up (Celicia). Those girls were the lead singers for the school band.”
Nagamuri said the donations are being made because Japanese are huge reggae fans and want to give back to the land of reggae. With schools generally low on resources to fund their music programme, they thought it would be fitting to assist in that area.
