Tina Mowatt and Charles Moore - Contributed

"This is the start of my dream," declared Tina Simone Mowatt about the musical recital staged at Webster Memorial United Church on Saturday, December 27.

In view of the function's title, Love at Christmas, her words might suggest that she had found romance in the cool Yuletide air, but in fact she was referring to an important step she was making toward a musical career.

For Mowatt, a mezzo soprano in her thirties, the recital marked her belated debut as a soloist and so was important in itself. But, additionally, she told The Gleaner, she would be using the video recording of the show as a "demo" for matriculation into an American university.

Mowatt was not the only performer at the recital, and the event was no less important for tenor Charles Moore, the other main singer. At 28, he was also making a delayed debut solo recital, which for him also signalled a new beginning.

"I'd like to make a career of music," he told The Gleaner. He was referring specifically to a performing career, for, as the music specialist with the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC), his job - organising and training music groups around the island - already involves music.

Mowatt started singing early in life in her (Roman Catholic) church but, she said, most of her formal musical training was with the University Singers. She only recently left the group - to challenge herself.

"I wanted to move out of my comfort zone," she said.

After much discussion about how to do that, she and Moore decided to organise the recital. It was to be the start of her dream, a dream she plans to continue with further study in the United States. A Jamaican professor of music at a university there who heard her sing and liked what he heard is, Mowatt said, waiting on the videotape of the performance.

no surprise

Moore said in an interview after last Saturday's recital that he had been singing in public from the age of nine, starting with the St Richard's Church choir. Since then, having studied with Fay Ennevor Robotham, Noel Dexter and June Thompson Lawson, he has sung with many other groups. They include The Jamaican Folk Singers, the Diocesan Festival Choir and The University Singers.

At Saturday's recital, Moore performed with an actor's flair and The Gleaner was not surprised to learn that Moore had appeared on stage with the Jamaica Musical Theatre Company (in The Wiz and Once Upon This Island). It was while he was with the JMTC that he met Mowatt. Since then, he has conducted her in choral presentations and they started talking about a joint appearance.

They decided they needed other performers for the recital, one set being a backing chorus. This turned out to be an excellent set of singers, five women and four men drawn from The University Singers, Nexus and the Youth Choir at Webster's.

Also on stage as guest artistes were The Thomas Ensemble, a musical family of five, who sang and played violins and - along with a cousin, Yekengale - keyboards and Dr Kathy Brown, one of the island's most popular and versatile musicians.

Not surprisingly, especially in light of their stay with The University Singers, Mowatt and Moore started their recital with more solemn songs. Those included The Joys of Love (Mozart), the Bach/Gounod Ave Maria and Mendelssohn's The King of Love.

Later came Spirituals - Ain't Got Time to Die, My Soul's Been Anchored, Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel? and He's Got the Whole World. The last three, very lively, items were a folksy Magnificat by Noel Dexter (who was in the audience, along with the patron of the event, Professor Rex Nettleford) and Kathy Brown's arrangements of Do You Hear What I Hear? and Christmas Medley.

Mowatt and Moore demonstrated to an appreciative audience that they are talented and dedicated singers. No one hearing them at their "debut recital" should be surprised if they go on to do well on the world stage.