Keep Your Award - Acclaimed Pianist Rejects National Honour

[Mosiah]

Keep Your Award - Acclaimed Pianist Rejects National Honour, Accuses Government Of Ignoring The Arts

Published: Sunday | October 6, 20136 CommentsClassical pianist Orrett Rhoden - File

Arthur Hall, Senior News Editor

Celebrated Jamaican concert pianist Orrett Rhoden has told Jamaica House that he has decided not to accept the Order of Distinction in the rank of Commander Class (CD) this year.

On Independence Day, August 6, it was announced that Orrett Dexter Anthony Rhoden would be awarded a CD for his outstanding contribution to the development of classical music in Jamaica.

But yesterday, Rhoden told*The Sunday Gleaner*that he had indicated to Jamaica House that he would not accept the award, which was scheduled to be conferred upon him at King's House on National Heroes Day later this month.

Rhoden, who is in the middle of organising the second Orrett Rhoden International Music Festival of Jamaica to take place this November, said he had requested audience with Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller on more than one occasion, but he is yet to receive any positive reaction from her office.

WANTED PM'S BLESSING

"I only wanted to get her blessing on my festival and to make known to her the great plans I have to take music and tourism in this country to the next level and the necessity to have support from the top," said Rhoden.

According to Rhoden, he was seeking financial and moral support from the Government and anticipated that Simpson Miller would have understood.

"Jamaica House never even responded to my letters, and I thought this was an insult. If you write a letter to the White House (office of the president of the United States), you are going to get a response."

He said his decision is a way of showing musicians that they should stand up for what they believe in.

"Unfortunately, almost nothing has been done to remedy the decaying state of the arts in this country since the office of former Prime Minister Edward Seaga, and I recently had a most disappointing meeting with the minister of tourism, Wykeham McNeill.

"I now intend to go forward by myself, of course, with the support of my many colleagues and friends, here and abroad," added Rhoden, as he argued that the festival would show a different side of Jamaican culture.

INTERNATIONAL SPOTLIGHT

Rhoden first received international acclaim after appearing in two BBC documentaries on Her Majesty The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh's visit to Jamaica in 1983.

He went on to make his London debut with the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican in 1984, then his Carnegie Hall debut in 1985.

According to Rhoden, he is passionate and excited about this year's festival, which has a line-up of a dozen local and internationally famous artistes.

The classical pianist said he intends to raise funds to build the first opera house in Kingston, as well as to launch an international institute for music in Westmoreland.

He said the Orrett Rhoden International Music Festival of Jamaica, which is slated for November 24 to December 1, aims to bring classical music alive in Jamaica with its annual concert series in Kingston and Westmoreland.

[Mosiah]

It would be interesting to hear Historian's view on this. Or has our good Forumite already taken himself away from our presence?

A classical music festival in Jamaica? Our idea of classical music is Bob Marley or Andrea Bocelli. That's it! And then he wants to bring it to Westmoreland?! Some may attend just to witness a male body part play music!

I wish Mr. Rhoden every success. Don't know how his arrogant self would bear anything less!

[Assasin]

why this? "Don't know how his arrogant self would bear anything less!"?

[Mosiah]

Just because I've heard him on the radio and thought, what conceit and arrogance!

[Karl]

Gotta say I have to agree with his stance.

[Assasin]

ok, I was just hoping you weren't using this article to come to that opinion.

Hope it work for him.

[Hortical]

Wrong, he should have accepted the award. You will have a bigger stage to state your grievances to the public thereafter.

[Gamma]

some people might think that about you reading your posts ... tief neva love fi si tief wid long bag ...

[Gamma]

i agree too .....

tek it and then cuss dem? poor taste ... ask lawrence rowe how that approach worked out for him ...

[Me]

The man true to himself and stand for something.

[Gamma]

for real ...

[Jangle]

He strikes me a being pompous. I myself would love to have audience with the Prime Minister of Jamaica, Mrs. Portia Simpson-Miller, but............

Orrett Rhoden has been ‘in love’ with the piano from the age of four, when he was enchanted by his mother’s playing. He studied with Mrs. Rita Coore, a distinguished Jamaican teacher, who encouraged him by her unconventional methods to develop the free and spontaneous style which has characterised him ever since. By age eight he was performing locally on television, and at thirteen he took first place in nine out of eleven classes in a major music competition in Toronto, Canada. He received his academic secondary education at Calabar College in Kingston, where he played the piano for morning chapel and accompanied the choir for school occasions such as prize-givings and graduations.

After graduation from Calabar he went in 1977 to live in the United States with Dr. Virginia-Gene Rittenhouse, noted composer and conductor of the New England Youth Ensemble, and developed his talents while touring worldwide with the group. In 1979 he gave several recitals in England.
In 1983 he returned to Jamaica to perform during the visit of Queen Elizabeth II. The producer of a documentary which was made of the visit was so impressed with Rhoden’s playing that she helped him to get an audition with the London Symphony Orchestra. In the same year he was invited to participate in the prestigious Caribbean and Latin American Festival of the Arts where he performed excerpts from Liszt's Transcendental Etudes at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London. Then in November 1984, he made his orchestral debut at the Barbican Centre, London, playing Tchaikovsky's Concerto No. 1 with the London Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Andre Bernard.
One of the high points of Rhoden's career was his meeting with Artur Rubenstein. He played Chopin for the great master who declared unreservedly, 'You have a rare talent'. Rubenstein, thoroughly impressed by his performance further proclaimed, 'Some pianists are not musicians, and some musicians are not pianists, but you, young man are both'. He subsequently received a coveted invitation to perform at an all Chopin recital in the composer's birthplace in Zelazowa Wola, Poland in 1985.
Rhoden performed in two recitals at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, in March 1985, to further international acclaim. In October of the same year he made his American debut at Carnegie Hall, New York, performing Scarletti's Two Sonatas in A, Bach's Concerto in the Italian Style, Schubert's Fantasy Sentimentales and Chopin's Andante Spianato and Grande Polonaise Brilliante. This was a most significant milestone for the young artiste.
In the following years, he gave numerous performances in Spain, France, Poland, Italy, Mexico, Canada and Russia. He has performed as a soloist, with several of the world's leading orchestras and conductors, including Claudio Abbado and the London Symphony Orchestra. He has also given a number of recitals for BBC Radio and Television. About five years ago, he staged a classical concert in Jamaica to raise money for Calabar, organised by the Calabar Old Boys Association. The CD was to be launched in Jamaica, in September 2002.
Rhoden's repertoire is wide and includes music from the Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Impressionistic and Contemporary periods. But he is known to be a die-hard Romantic, and is naturally at his best with Romantic composers.
Rhoden's first CD album, 'Orrett Rhoden plays Brahms and Chopin', was released by ASV in 1986, and a Schumann CD album will be released soon by LRP Recordings, New York.
Kitty Bocking, a music critic from London, summed up thus Rhoden’s affinity with Romantic composers, after hearing a pre-release of the soon-to-be released CD album, Robert Schumann: Kinderscenen Op. 15; Kreisleriana Op. 16:
'To listen to Orrett Rhoden play the piano is to hear something new. Perhaps surprising at first, his unique and intensely felt approach to music is arresting, almost overwhelming, always leaving the listener wanting more. At his best with the Romantics, Rhoden's already high personal standards give renewed intensity to these beautiful works. While unafraid to plumb the depths of emotion that Romantic composers demand, but often do not get, Rhoden often brings a seldom heard playfulness and wit as part of his extraordinarily wide-ranging approach. In this wonderful new recording, Schumann has surely found a haven in the hands of Orrett Rhoden'.

[Willi]

Him arrogant or the GOJ???

[Willi]

If I ever tell yuh what we lost during PJ time just outta PJ arrogance not to meet and great a well known American Captain of Industry!

The full has never been told!!!!

[Willi]

SAame way yuh would call Bob Marley arrogant if him did still alive. Bob woulda run Tician same way!

Award, award, rasta nuh ten nuh earthly vanity award...Next ting unno aggo waan gi di Dread poke fi eat..LoL