At 6:00 pm this evening, Keisha Patterson and Seretse Small will be performing at 4 Washington Drive off Annette Crescent in aid of Avant Academy of Music.
The night is billed as “Keisha & Seretse” was originally billed "Della & Seretse” as it was originally to feature Della Manley as the main performer along with Seretse Small.
However, two days prior to the event, Della became ill and had to cancel her participation.
Keisha Patterson was contacted at once to fill in for Della. She confirmed that she was available and arrangements were made to change the program.
Avant Academy of Music will be hosting a Virtual Open House online from Thursday, September 24 to Friday, September 25. The public will be able to learn about the program, meet the music mentors, and hear from leading Jamaican professional musicians on what it takes to have a successful life as a musician in Jamaica.
The URL for this completely virtual event is https://hopin.to/events/avant-academy-of-music-virtual-open-house
On Sunday, July 5 Avant Academy of Music will be doing a live broadcast on the social media platform, Facebook to showcase the talents and creativity of its music mentors. This will be streamed live from the facilities of Avant Academy of Music on Paddington Terrace where the school has operated from for the past seven years.
We are sitting in the guitar room of Avant Academy of Music. Drum mentors and social media consultant, Ramon Watson is behind the camera and I have my phone out to record this interview. I hope you enjoy the telling of his journey and how noble his path has been.
I met Shawn Richards when he started attending the Edna Manley College. His abilities as a classical guitarist were abundantly evident yet he seemed to carry himself as a person who started his musical journey later than many and considered it a blessing to be studying music and to be amongst academic musicians. When I heard that he had gone to Venezuela to study Classical Guitar I could not think of anyone more deserving of the opportunity.
As we sat to discuss preparations for the upcoming “Acoustic Delights” performance at Cannonball Cafe I took the opportunity to find out more about his journey and found myself in listening mode. My responses were reduced to nodding, saying “right” and “wow” as he passionately told his story with gratitude.
In preparation for the Acoustic Delights performance at the Cannonball Cafe on Thursday, November 28, 2019, I met with him and guitarist Shawn Richards, who is also performing on the show and like myself was taught by Norman in a group music room at Avant Academy of Music. After we discussed the guitar repertoire for the show and with Shawn playing some stunning guitar in the background, I proceeded to ask Norman a few questions about his journey and his feeling about the place of Classical Guitar in Jamaica.
