October 01st 2011
It’s Just Us
By Kendell “Scady” Eugene

On Thursday August 25th a group committed to the development of arts and bringing out “Saint Lucian Voices Together in Harmony,” Just Us hosted their concert and launch, the group’s first major production at the Bay Gardens conference room. We recently interviewed one of their members just to get to know Just Us a little better.

…..on the need for a group Just Us

We were previously known as the St. Lucia national youth choir under the umbrella of the St.Lucia school of music. However, due to unfortunate circumstances beyond our control, we had to break away from the school, but after much deliberation, decided to use the opportunity to further contribute to the arts as an independent group, thus forming the group, "Justus".

…..on their membership and development

Our launching the group was made up of fifteen singers. However we recently had auditions and we have welcomed a few more to the family. Because our director, Mr. Bailey is a stalwart of the education of music in St. Lucia, all members of the choir are encouraged to do the ABRSM grade singing exam every year. In essence, after having joined the choir, you have the opportunity to become a qualified singer. The choir seeks to develop musicians holistically so every year we try to have voice training sessions to improve our abilities and strengthen our instrument (voice). In addition, we have a choreographer Richard Ambrose who not only teaches us dance moves, but enables us to evoke what we sing through simple facial expressions or gestures.

…..on being different

Our group is an auditioned group where potential members go through a two-part audition where not only their singing ability is judged but their ability to perform as well as their ear for music. We are solely made up of soloists which means that any one member is able to hold his/her own, instead of being just an accompaniment. Hence, any four individuals from the group can sound like a full choir. One can safely say that we are the only choir on the island that ventures to sing the genres of music that we do. St.Lucia is blessed with a number of gospel choirs but we are specialists in almost all genres like Jazz, Classical, Negro Spirituals, Soca, Reggae, Calypso, Pop, Swahili et al.

……on keeping that Saint Lucian and Caribbean feel in their music

Jason (Bachelor) Joseph ensures that we maintain a Caribbean section so that we don't lose sight of our culture. So you see our choir does not only teach music, it helps you to become a professional who is comfortable on the stage, being music savvy in all aspects. We are taught a number of Creole songs which seem to be disappearing in our world of Movados and Rihannas.

….preparation for the first production

We worked tirelessly for months trying to perfect our parts and learning choreography.
Rehearsals ran from afternoon until late into the night

….a first of many

Definitely!! This is the first of many productions to come!!!

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