Rory Baugh filled the chapel with his sonorous, powerful voice. - Colin Hamilton/Freelance Photographer

Superb and sublime are two of the adjectives that might be used to describe the (mainly) classical music concert at the University Chapel, Mona, on Sunday evening. It wouldn't be overstating the high quality of the show to add marvellous and magnificent.

The large audience certainly enjoyed it, applauding every item enthusiastically and even giving three standing ovations. Perhaps the only complaint made was that the fund-raising concert series, 'Music Through the Ages', happens only once a year.

Sunday's concert was 'Music Through the Ages 2', and one patron asked a member of the organising group, the Jamaica American Friendship Association (JAFA), about the possibility of the show being staged more frequently. The response was a 'wish-it-could-be-done' laugh.

There certainly would be challenges to such an attempt: Sunday's concert involved 14 talented musicians performing for free. That helped to maximise the funds raised for the causes JAFA has chosen to back this year. They include the award of bursaries to two students at the University of the West Indies, a Christmas treat for 200 youngsters from children's homes in the Corporate Area and a basic school that JAFA has recently adopted.

Musical items

The ebullient emcee, Norma Brown-Bell, gave interesting and useful snippets of information on each of the performers, not neglecting the often overlooked accompanists. The main ones on Sunday were Livingston Burnett and Donald Hossack, who both played the organ and the piano as the need arose.

'Music Through the Ages' as a title refers to the fact that the musical items include the old and the new, as well as to the span of the ages of the performers. Several children performed on Sunday, some being members of the Jamaica College Chapel Choir and two being soloists.

Eleven-year-old Aaron Lawrence was the first up. He gave a lively rendition of Rossini's William Tell Overture and set a tone and standard for the items that followed. It was clear the audience was in for a treat.

Conducted by Randall Campbell, 15 of the 30-strong Jamaica College Chapel Choir sang two Mozart pieces, Ave Verum and Glorious is Thy Name. Perhaps by design, the higher voices got a chance to be dominant in the first item, while the lower voices had their turn in the second piece.

Steadily improving technique

Nine-year-old violinist Ellinor D'Melon, a regular performer at classical music concerts, showed off her steadily improving technique and widening repertoire with 'Chanson Sans Parole' (Tchaikovsky) and 'Preludium and Allegro' (Kreisler).

The next singer, tenor Rory Baugh, who is now in his 20s, joined the Jamaica Junior Theatre when he was 10 and has been singing since then. According to the emcee, he is "in high demand, especially on the north coast". Baugh showed why, as, singing Puccini's 'Addio Fiorito Asil', he filled the chapel with his sonorous, powerful voice.

Jamaica Military Band bandmaster A. Shaun Hird showed his mastery of the flute with a delightful rendition of a spritely, but unnamed multilayered item. He, too, began to study music before entering his teens, Brown-Bell said.

She also said, in her introduction of the next performer, mezzo-soprano Marilyn Brice Macdonald, that Macdonald has been a member of the Jamaican Folk Singers for 41 years and received a Bronze Musgrave Medal for her contribution to music in Jamaica. Her delivery of the popular song, I Believe, was touching in its sincerity.

Lieutenant Commander John McFarlane, who as a youngster won awards in both music and speech competitions, broke with the practice that had been set by the previous performers and he chatted amiably with the audience before singing a medley of songs from West Side Story. Both he and the next singer, Christine MacDonald Nevers (who offered Gluck's Che Faro) showed by their dramatic deliveries that they possess a background in theatre.

Introduced as a trained pianist and cellist, a conductor, composer and arranger for the University Singers, and "an attorney-at-law in his day job", Franklin Halliburton was even more dramatic in his interpretation of the hymn The Lord is My Light.

As the applause and cheers that he elicited died down, Brown-Bell remarked, to sounds of agreement, "The concert gets richer by the minute".

It certainly continued to do so as soprano Carole Reid, after singing a Strauss piece solo, teamed up with Baugh, her former pupil, for an unusual duet. While one sang I Believe, the other sang Ave Maria; the double item was as enjoyable as it was out of the ordinary.

Another duet, this time featuring Jon Williams and Paulette Bellamy on violin, playing a medley of fast-paced tunes — the idioms included jazz, musicals, folk, ska and reggae — ended the first half on a really high note. The pair received a standing ovation.

The second half saw most of the performers returning with selections which gave as much pleasure as their earlier ones. One difference in this half was the inclusion of two hilarious songs, Someone is Sending Me Flowers (Brice Macdonald) and Tale of the Oyster (Macdonald Nevers).

After Reid and Baugh paired again for the heart-tugging Time to Say Goodbye, all the performers returned to the 'stage' area for a finale consisting of Bob Marley's Three Little Birds and One Love.

Jon Williams and Paulette Bellamy on violin. - Colin Hamilton/Freelance Photographer

Marilyn Brice Macdonald (left) and Christine Macdonald Nevers perform at 'Music Through the Ages 2', at the University Chapel on Sunday. - Colin Hamilton/Freelance Photographer