March 22, 2022
The historical Kingston Parish Church, located in the heart of Jamaica’s downtown commercial district, will on Tuesday, March 29 be the location for a historical concert in collaboration with Jamaica and Austria to remember Jamaica’s first documented composer Samuel Felsted who died 220 years ago.
The collaboration, under the Patronage of Austrian Ambassador H.E. Sylvia Meier-Kajbic, is being made possible through the initiative of Austrian-born Rosina Christina Moder, Executive Director of Music Unites Jamaica Foundation (MUJF), who has been performing and teaching in Jamaica since 1985. According to Moder, the opportunity to stage such a concert came at a time when Jamaica celebrates its 60th year of Independence and at the same time 60 years of diplomatic relations between Jamaica and Austria, as well as in recognition of Samuel Felsted, who is known in music circles to have written the very first oratorio (‘Jonah’) in the entire Western Hemisphere.
What is even more fascinating about this event is that Austria’s prominent organist Franz Zebinger has recorded for the first time ever, Samuel Felsted’s complete set of ‘Six Voluntarys for Organ or Harpsichord’, which will be launched on YouTube for worldwide viewing just before the evening concert entitled “Abendmusiken” at Church Mariahilf in Graz, Austria. It was the intention of MUJF to invite Zebinger to perform here in Jamaica at the Kingston Parish Church, the origin of Felsted’s composition while he served as organist from 1783, up until his passing on March 29, 1802, but due to the worldwide COVID 19 pandemic, that plan had to be shelved. However, during this time, Zebinger recorded the six organ pieces on the baroque organ at the ‘Marienkirche’ in Gleisdorf, a town in the Austrian Province of Styria.
Jamaicans will be able to be a part of this historic moment during the free public concert at the Kingston Parish Church, commencing at 1:00 p.m. Jamaica time. The event will be live streamed from the concert ‘Abendmusiken’ which is taking place simultaneously at the Church ‘Mariahilf’ in Graz, Austria. For all who are not able to attend this lunch hour concert, it will be broadcast locally by PBCJ, and world-wide streamed at a date to be announced.
In celebration of its 50th Anniversary, The National Chorale of Jamaica will perform the Final Chorus from the Oratorio ‘Jonah’, the ‘Jamaican Hallelujah’, composed by Samuel Felsted, featuring Soprano Christine McDonald and Tenor John McFarlane, accompanied by the organist of the Kingston Parish Church, Dwight McBean.
The concert will also feature Jamaica’s accomplished musician/composer Peter Ashbourne’s new composition ‘Jamaica Fair’, being performed by the intriguing voice of boy soprano Oscar Kremer. Peter Ashbourne’s composition for String Quartet – ‘Jamaica Folk’ and his recorder compositions ‘Elena and her Variations’ and ‘Crystal Spring’ will be a highlight of the presentation at the church in Austria, alongside four of Felsted’s Organ Voluntarys.
Rosina will return to her homeland to be a part of the performance which also will feature Kornelia Pilz, one of her former star recorder students and two young Jamaican musicians, bass player Alvis Reid and pianist Luke Dixon (both of whom now reside in Austria). It was at the University of Music and the Performing Arts in Graz where Rosina gained her Bachelor and Masters degrees on the recorder.
Through the tireless work of Moder and her MUJF team, they have pursued groundbreaking research on the life and works of Jamaican composers for over a decade, which was made possible by a grant from the Jamaica National Foundation. One of the milestone goals of the Foundation’s Executive Director was to make the two preserved works by Felsted – the oratorio ‘Jonah’ and the ‘Six Voluntarys for Organ or Harpsichord’ available for purchase. Her close musical associate, Argentinean-German Professor Manfredo Zimmermann has recently published these on www.musicornaments.com