ENTERTAINMENT
CAR AR ARIBB IBB BB B IB BBEAN EAN EA AN E N LIF LI IF I L F FENE ENE EN N NE WS. WS S. S W CO COM OM O EN / E N TER TE ER T R TA TAI AI T I A AINM NME ME NM M N E NMENT NT
Paul Grosvenor and Geraldine McMillan perform a duet from Porgy and Bess’s “Bess, You is My Woman
Now.” Photo by Nelson A. King
Caribbean Life, S BQ eptember 20-26, 2019 41
By Nelson A. King
It was billed as “An Afternoon of
Great Music” and the billing, clearly,
lived up to expectations — even
exceeding them — as three Black
internationally-acclaimed singers on
Sunday brought Carnegie Hall to St.
Paul’s Church in the Village of Flatbush,
Brooklyn.
In a two-hour performance, Paul
Grosvenor (baritone), Geraldine
McMillan (soprano) and Taiwan Norris
(tenor), with David Mayfield on
piano, enchanted a highly-appreciative
audience in the sanctuary of the
church that was founded in 1836.
“I felt like I was at Carnegie Hall
with these phenomenal artists,”
proclaimed Registered Nurse Judith
Lewis, a member of the organizing
committee, in a Caribbean Life interview
afterwards. “The ambience was
contagious.
“I felt like I was in Heaven,” she
added, echoing the sentiment of a
patron, Brenda, who only wanted to
be identified by her first name.
Carlyn Christie, another patron,
said it was “an evening well-spent.”
The artists sang individually and
collectively in opera, oratorio, spirituals
and narration in five segments,
breaking for 10 minutes after the
first two.
Norris rendered Donizetti’s
“Quanto e Bella;” Handel’s “Every
Valley;” Hall Johnson-arranged “Witness;”
Lovland/Graham’s “You Raise
Me Up;” and “It Ain’t Necessarily So”
from Porgy and Bess.
Grosvenor performed Gounod’s
Continued on Page 42
Owusu Slater and Judith “Baffy”
Cuffy-Murray perform in “Enough is
Enough.” Photo by Nelson A. King
By Nelson A. King
On the heels of a very successful medical
mission to St. Vincent and the Grenadines,
the United Vincie Cultural Group
of Brooklyn (UVCGB) two Saturdays ago
conducted another very successful cultural
show at the Meyer Levin (I.S. 285)
Intermediate School in Brooklyn.
“The group worked assiduously over
the course of about six months to present
a show that would hold the attention of its
audience, encourage its interaction, leave
an indelible imprint on everyone’s minds
and hopeful that they would have left with
anticipation / expectations for an awesome
2020 cultural show,” UVCGB’s president
and founder Dr. Roxie Irish-Morris
told Caribbean Life after the group’s 15th
Annual Cultural Show.
“If I were to interpret the audience’s
reception — its applause, sing-along,
hand-clapping, flag-waving and laughter,
along with the many positive statements
by various patrons — as a barometer
to gauge the success of the show, I will
emphatically state that it was, indeed, very
successful,” she added. “Thank you to all
who contributed / participated.”
Randy Liverpool, UVCGB’s choreographer
and songwriter, agreed about the
show’s success.
“The event was well-attended, with
numerous returning patrons and many
new-comers attending, all excited about
the entertainment that the UVCGB had to
offer, and to support the UVCGB’s primary
cause of raising funds to donate medical
Continued on Page 42
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Brooklyn
group hosts
successful
cultural show GREAT
MUSIC
‘Carnegie Hall’ comes to St. Paul’s Church
/ENTERTAINMENT