Bahamas Local : music lessons

News Article

Italian pop singer, Sushy shoots music video in Grand Bahama

GRAND BAHAMA, The
Bahamas - Italian R & B, pop, dance, and sometimes rock singer,
Sushy is in Grand Bahama shooting her latest music video. The island
offers an idyllic shooting venue for its diverse and lush locations on
and off the water. Her new music video is called, "Water" and scenes were also shot in Florida.

From the tender age of 5 Susanna Galimi alias "Sushy" started piano
lessons at the Conservatory of Music in Milan, she spent most of her
childhood travelling especially the USA with her family and thanks to
his father she's grown up listenin' to the Black Music and the Masters
of Jazz. As a child, all Sushy wanted out of life was to become a
singer, and she was driven by the music of Michae

l
Jackson, Mariah Carey, Nina Simone, Billy Holiday, Frank Sinatra, Janis
Joplin, Lauryn Hill...and her first loves

News Article

Italian pop singer, Sushy shoots music video in Grand Bahama

GRAND BAHAMA, The
Bahamas - Italian R & B, pop, dance, and sometimes rock singer,
Sushy is in Grand Bahama shooting her latest music video. The island
offers an idyllic shooting venue for its diverse and lush locations on
and off the water. Her new music video is called, "Water" and scenes were also shot in Florida.

From the tender age of 5 Susanna Galimi alias "Sushy" started piano
lessons at the Conservatory of Music in Milan, she spent most of her
childhood travelling especially the USA with her family and thanks to
his father she's grown up listenin' to the Black Music and the Masters
of Jazz. As a child, all Sushy wanted out of life was to become a
singer, and she was driven by the music of Michae

l
Jackson, Mariah Carey, Nina Simone, Billy Holiday, Frank Sinatra, Janis
Joplin, Lauryn Hill...and her first loves

News Article

Legends Celebrated

The Bahamas Brass Band's Night of Legends, which honors long-serving members who have contributed their musical talents and personal resources to build the band ministry that is well-known around the Church of God of Prophecy world, is quickly becoming a much-anticipated and celebrated event, and this year was no exception.

News Article

Island Waves Community Project

MUSIC. GARDENING. ART. CRAFTS. NUTRITION. TUTORING. STUDIO RECORDING. OPEN MIC NIGHT. EMPOWERMENT WORKSHOPS. COMEDY. OUTREACH.

Can you imagine what your childhood would have been like without these? Without the services of your local park district, after school program, or youth group? Essentially, our goal is to fill the void that currently exists here on Abaco Island. While we are rich in terms of the beauty this island provides us, we often lack such vital services. But our center is also so much more than just your average park district--it's a also a space for local artists and musicians to network and unite.

News Article

The power of music

Music education has proven again and again to be an effective took for building up confidence and academic performance through a positive creative outlet but in the case of two fast friends at the Bahamas Music Conservatory, it has completely transformed lives.
Timothy Linden and Kameron Major credit music for helping them focus their lives, and after a year of dedication, the two young men have received full scholarships to continue on at the Bahamas Music Conservatory for the next academic year.
The announcement, says Bahamas Music Conservatory Musical Director JoAnne Connaughton, comes as an inspiration these days where young men in crime statistics outnumber those making such positive achievements.
"I can honestly say they both got their scholarships and trophies on merit but I'm happy it's gone to families where there was a need," she said. "In both cases, they genuinely earned it through their quality of progress and contribution to the orchestra. They rose to the top."
Both scholarships will cover all fees for the young men to take another year of afterschool and weekend music, instrumental and orchestral training.
For 13-year-old Kameron Major, who won the Butterfield Cup and scholarship sponsored by Butterfield Bank, the award means he can return to the BMC for a fifth year and continue his achievements with the cello.
"I like the play the cello because it's another way of communicating and I feel like I can go many different places," he said.
Learning the cello at the BMC under Connaughton has allowed Major to do well in school at St. Augustine's College. He credits Connaughton with the ability to provide support as well as the right push to help with his challenges.
"Ms. JoAnne is a very nice teacher," said Major. "She pushes me to make sure I do what I'm supposed to do when exams come up she really tries hard to make me practice and she motivates me to do better, like with a sticker chart and games."
Major himself however is also an exceptional teacher and role model to other BMC students, says Connaughton something that helped him gain recognition for this year's scholarship consideration. He's been key in the development of at least two new cellists at the conservatory, making him a great role model in the BMC family.
"Between lessons, he has given them tutoring sessions and he's helped them," she said. "One of the kids was struggling and I had no schedule time to help them so I suggested they go see Kameron and they did. They came back two weeks later and they could play everything. That was for no money or anything it's because they needed it and asked and he said yes."
"So he's very effective as a section leader and a role model for the other cellists," she continued. "So he's the hero in the cello section, as well as being very good at playing."
By contrast, 18-year-old Timothy Linden has only been learning the double bass for a year at the Conservatory, yet its effects on his outlook on life hold the greatest argument for encouraging music education in programs like Urban Renewal.
After a rough school experience, Linden thought about leaving education behind but after taking on the double bass, he's now going back to complete his BJC exams and skipping two music grades in order to meet the requirements for college level music studies. He credits the Bahamas Music Conservatory and Connaughton's guidance for helping him find his true path.
"Music changed me in a big way because when I'm here I play amongst friends and I feel calm and safe," said Linden. "I feel like it's helped me in other ways. In my past life I used to be a troublesome child but now that I play music I just stick to myself."
"I think the orchestra is a family to me," he added. "Ms. JoAnne is a good teacher. She makes sure I get my job done. If I could change one thing about the program, it would be for everyone to be home schooled by Ms. JoAnne and for our orchestra to be a place that also teaches maths and other subjects."
Despite coming to music education at a late age, Linden is able to play very impressively says Connaughton, and has the passion and commitment to maintain his practice.
"He has a level of focus of practice that really impresses me," she said. "If he doesn't get it right away, he still gets it in his head and goes away to practice it and he comes back and he's nailed it. His practice is so meticulous he makes such a good sound. When he plays, he plays with such good technique."
"The child I see, I would never have known he has a history of fighting," she added. "He's focused, positive and has great social skills within the dynamic of the orchestra."
His progress, she says, is a testament to the power of music education that the discipline involved in learning an instrument not only fosters creativity, critical thinking and social skills but also ultimately provides another possibility for the future of the child.
In fact, she hopes the role of the Bahamas Music Conservatory providing afterschool and weekend high quality and low-cost musical, instrumental and orchestral training will make The Bahamas famous in such achievements.
She encourages her students to pursue "shortage" instruments the less-popular and therefore most sought-after instruments in an orchestral ensemble like the double base, viola, French horn, oboe and bassoon.
"We know there's no shortage of talent here, but I think we can help ourselves make a name for ourselves in an area where people are looking," she said. "If you play the double bass or the viola, you have a much better chance of getting into college because every self-respecting University orchestra needs them. They know they're going to get their violins and clarinets and trumpets, but if you play a shortage instrument, you're likely to get a scholarship with your acceptance."
Yet Connaughton's vision for a better Bahamian youth through the power of music doesn't stop at the Bahamas Music Conservatory since last year, she has been working hard to implement the El Sistema program in Bahamian schools.
El Sistema, started in Venezuela, is a publicly funded music education program that provides afterschool instrumental training programs for 125 youth orchestras. Out of the 310,000-370,000 students who take part, 70-90 percent come from poor socio-economic backgrounds.
Due to its success in building social development for the country, similar programs have been founded in the United States and the United Kingdom and Connaughton knows it will work here too. She hopes, with her proposal up for review once more by government, that El Sistema will inspire a whole new generation of Bahamians to improve their lives like Timothy Linden did.
"The new government are saying they want to invest in education and youth, and we're showing them how to do it," she said.
"This is why we need El Sistema because it gives kids like Timothy a second chance," she added. "I want to give all of the kids a first chance I don't even want to wait for a second chance. We can all identify the kids at-risk, and I want to take those kids and take that risk away."
For more about the Bahamas Music Conservatory and El Sistema in The Bahamas, check out www.bahamasmusicconservatory.com.

News Article

Meah Foundation's to Host Their First Music Festival

Nassau, Bahamas -
Featuring performances by The Band Quartz, The Rum Dums and Johnnie
Christie, The Meah Foundation's first Music Festival on Saturday, June
1st promises to be a vibrant and powerful evening and while the music
and refreshments promise to be outstanding, with well-known restaurants
Van Breugel's and Olives Meze Grill providing the food, what founder,
Tina Klonaris-Robinson hopes is that Festival attendants leave with
smiles both on their faces and in their hearts.

Tina's journey
has been a profoundly life-altering one, an inspiration to all of us who
have suffered loss. Discovering that the greatest lessons...

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