The sweet, soulful sound of "Kumbaya," played by 20 students on violin, drifted through the auditorium at John H. Woodson Jr. High on Tuesday. It was all part of the Fourth Annual March Music Series, giving public and private school students territory-wide the chance to get together and pay tribute to living and deceased local musicians and culture bearers during “V.I. History and Music in Our Schools Month.”
In the series finale, the students paid tribute to Ohaldo Williams, a well-known, local band leader and master saxophonist; and Dr. Eugene “Doc” Petersen, folk singer and musician.
The students in the Ricardo Richards Violin Ensemble are actually under the direction of the son of Ohaldo Williams, school orchestra leader Frederick Williams.
“I am glad they recognized who he was in local music,” Williams said. “He started his band way back in the 1950s.” Three other sons were on hand for the occasion.
Edgar Lake, local historian, author and cultural researcher for the Department of Education, said Petersen’s folk music keeps alive the optimism in the march from the estates to towns to congresses with a democratic voice.
Eleven students in Charles H. Emanuel Elementary School chorus did a musical rendition of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech and “Thank You for the Music“ by Abba. Seven students from the Charles H. Emanuel Drama Club did a skit entitled “He is Blessed.”
“We learn and sing songs of our history to bind us together to spread peace and love,” said Kiara Prescott, a sixth-grader in the Emanuel Chorus.
The John H. Woodson Quadrille Dancers and drama students also performed for close to 400 students gathered for the program.
Gerard Emanuel, assistant director at the Education Department’s Cultural Education Division, said they have a more permanent captive audience at schools, so this year the series went to the public schools on St. Croix.
Similar productions with steel orchestras, Hispanic dancers, banjo bands, quelbe bands and pantomime performers honored Frank Charles, Samuel “Mighty Pat” Ferdinand, Camille Macedon, Eldred Christian, Daryl Tony Richards, and Dimitri “Pikey” Copeman.
“Some music is for our brains,” Emanuel told the students. “Music is not all for Jump Up.”
Honored on St. Thomas were Alfred “Freddy” Lockhart, Lorna Freeman-Dennis, Julius A. “Mebobo” Williams Sr., Naomi Toussaint Williams, Bill Fleming and Percy Nurse. The series, which included 10 participating schools, took place at Emancipation Garden on St. Thomas.
The programs were made possible through grants and funding from the V.I. Lottery, West Indian Co. Ltd., the, Frederiksted Economical Development Association , St. Croix Renaissance Group, the Department of Tourism, Bellevista Scott Hotel, Best Western Emerald Beach Hotel, Pier 69, King’s Alley Hotel, Megamix Production, Budget Rent-A-Car, Herbie’s Tip Top Rental, the V.I. Department of Education, V.I. Council on the Arts , and the V.I. Cultural Heritage Institute.