Anguilla is the only Caribbean island chosen as part of an Atlantic Rim Festival tour by Ensemble Moscow XX1, the first professional and international orchestra to be established in Russia. Its conductor, Irish-born Lygia O’Riordan, who has fallen in love with Anguilla, has been on the island this week making arrangements for the December 18 and 19 tour.

Among those with whom she spoke was Bishop Errol Brooks, who is delighted that the first performance of the greatly-acclaimed orchestra will be at St. Mary’s Anglican Church.

Ms. O’Riordan with teacher Russian conductor Gennadij Rozhdestvensky

Ms O’Riordan, who studied in Moscow at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory, said the 13-member Ensemble XX1 which she started, was the first orchestra there with both foreigners and Russians working together. “The idea behind is that musicians everywhere should be able to work together no matter where they come from. It is to break down barriers where possible so that we can play together with our colleagues everywhere,” the accomplished conductor stated.

“A very concrete example of that is that we are going up shortly north of Sakhalin, which is an island beyond Siberia and belongs to Russia. There the indigenous people have a fantastic old musical culture that nobody has ever played with them before. So we as classical musicians are for the first time going up there to play with them their music which goes back thousands and thousands of years.”

She continued: “In Sakhalin and also in Australia in the year 2000 we began the Pacific Rim Music Festival which goes right through the Asian Pacific Rim. I have always wanted to make a sister festival – the Atlantic Rim Festival and that is starting this year in Ireland.

“We will be going right on through Latin America. The idea is to go down to both the Pacific and the Atlantic Rim somewhere at the bottom where Latin America would meet. We have chosen Anguilla as the sole place in the Caribbean for our Atlantic Rim Festival. This is taking place in December, so you will have your Jazz Festival in November and then classical music in December.”

Asked why Anguilla was chosen for the festival, Ms O’Riordan replied: “I had the great pleasure of coming to Anguilla earlier this year when very good friends of mine invited me here to spend a holiday with them and I just completely fell in love with the place. During that holiday I met with Bishop Brooks and said I would like the orchestra to come here and, as I said, Anguilla is now the sole location in the Caribbean for the festival. This is a place I really love and I have come back again this time for a holiday and hopefully to make this happen.”

Ensemble XXI Moscow in front of the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatoire

She said that the idea of the festivals was to bring world class orchestral performances to places that perhaps normally would not get them. Secondly, the aim was to involve local musicians and children where possible. “We hope that in Anguilla not only will we be able to play our concerts …but we also want to get together with some of the local musicians to play with them steel pans and so on,” she told The Anguillian. “I have met Dumpa who plays fantastically. We would love to do something with him and also involve children in concerts as well. There will be concerts of course, but we will be doing other things in community. I hope it will be a great classical music experience for everybody on Anguilla.”

She expressed the hope that during the rehearsals people on the island would be in attendance to listen and see what an orchestra does and get a feel of what classical music is all about. The festival will open at St. Mary’s Anglican Church on December 18. Among the other events will be an open air concert of Christmas music. She is hoping that people from St. Martin/St.Maarten and the surrounding islands will come to Anguilla for the festival.

Commenting on the festival, Bishop Brooks said: “I am a fanatic of classical music and when Ms O’Riordan made the proposal of the orchestra coming to Anguilla, I jumped for it. I am very supportive of the idea and will do everything to ensure that it comes off. Last weekend, we spent a lot of time going around and seeing certain individuals whom we think can assist in making the festival a reality. In the meantime, between now and the 18th and 19th of December we will do all we can to make sure that the ground work is in place and everything will be ready for the visiting orchestra.”

The Bishop added: “We want to invite the whole island to the festival. I think this is a great thing. Anguilla is the only place in the Caribbean where the musicians will be traveling to and I think that is a great fillip for the tourism product of Anguilla. It is also a means of inspiring our young people to get involved in music. The discipline in music is wonderful and those who have done music know that the discipline acquired is also translated into other areas of life.”

Ms O’Riordan is leaving Anguilla this weekend. Since her arrival, she has been a guest at the Shoal Bay North residence of her friends, Mr. and Mrs. Simon Heman. Mr. Heman served as Deputy Commissioner in Anguilla from March to about November 1969.

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