Monday I met with the Chamber Orchestra students. About a dozen teenagers arrived, helped set up chairs, copy music and chatted amiably while waiting for class. These young people seem mature beyond their years and love music for all the right reasons: communication, building community, expressing emotions, creating confidence and applying focus.
The students were well-mannered, positive, collegial, and very eager to learn. Their music has a passion that only comes with persistence and belief combined with vulnerability and power. I wonder what it was like to be born of the first generation of independent St. Lucians?
A young country, only 37 years free from colonization, the inhabitants are dedicated to peace. Listen as the chamber orchestra performs the St. Lucia National Anthem from memory:
