Nariba
Herbert (left) and Verleyne Andrews
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Verleyne
Andrews
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Nariba
Herbert
Photos:
Jon Hill
BY
DEBBIE JACOB
On stage, they are the picture of confidence. With her violin
tucked snugly under her chin, Verleyne Andrews produces
a sweet, warm procession of notes that make an audience,
as well as an adjudicator, melt like butter.
It’s a vastly different feeling from the haunting notes
that Nariba Herbert produces when she draws her bow across
her viola, which looks very much like an up-sized violin.
“The viola has a very different sound from any other
instrument,” says Herbert, 19, of Mount Lambert. “That’s
what attracted me to it.”
Strangely enough, neither girl chose the instrument she
has mastered—even though each could now be considered
a virtuoso.
Herbert took up the viola almost by accident when she was
leaving the University School, where she sang in the choir.
As she was leaving school after her Common Entrance Exam,
her music teacher Kenneth Listhrop just happened to say,
“Nariba, I have a viola sitting over there and no one
to play it. I’d like you to try.”
She said she loved the eerie sound it created. It became
part of her life from that day and she has never played
another instrument.
Andrews, 18, who was born in the US while her mother was
doing one of her Masters degrees, started playing violin
because her mother had decided on it. “I had just stopped
piano lessons and my mother thought I should play the violin
because it was one of her favourite instruments,” says
Andrews, who now lives in Maracas, St Joseph.
“I
didn’t like it at first. I didn’t want to go to
lessons, but after a while I realised I was good at the
violin and then I fell in love with it.”
Although she showed an early flair for the instrument, Andrews
says technique was hardest to master in the beginning. “Holding
the bow was the hardest for me to learn.” Andrews also
found her way to Listhrop for lessons.
In 1997 she performed in her first Music Festival. “Little
did I know that it was the beginning of a whole new era
of performance for me,” says Andrews.
Both Andrews and Herbert quickly began to chalk up musical
awards. Among Andrews’ numerous awards are the trophy
for Best Wind/String Instrumental as well as the Albert
Kerr Cup at the 2002 Music Festival, where she last competed.
She is currently studying at the Caribbean Union College
in Maracas Valley and, like Herbert, she teaches music to
some of Listhrop’s beginners.
Her interests lie in business, but Andrews can’t think
about business without connecting it to music. “Whatever
business I go into will have something to do with music,”
she insists.
Andrews is thinking about opening a therapy centre with
physiotherapy, counseling, and music therapy, or opening
a restaurant that will feature live music—even romantic
strings. She is also considering opening a recording studio.
“I
enjoy anything that is creative,” says Andrews. “Of
course I will continue traveling and playing music also.”
Come July, Andrews will be going to the US to make a studio
CD in Maryland. There will be something for everybody, Andrews
promises: religious, classical, romantic, pop and definitely
some jazz.
“There
are a lot of jazz violinists out there,” says Andrews.
“You can do any style of music on the violin.”
Herbert, who is a Sixth Form student at the Government school
in St James, feels the same passion for her viola. She experiments
with jazz, pop and other music you wouldn’t normally
associate with a viola.
Most violists start out with another instrument and transfer
to the viola, which has its own clef, different from the
bass and treble clefs that most instruments play. Students
generally graduate to the viola after mastering the “normal”
clef. But Herbert defied the norm from the beginning.
“It
was hard when I started because there were only about 10
violists in the country. There wasn’t much written
music and we had to convert musical notes for the viola.
Now you can find more music written for the viola and you
don’t have to convert all the music.”
At this year’s Music Festival Herbert won the Viola
Open Class and the Albert Kerr Cup. She got a trophy for
best overall woodwind, and string instrumentals. She arguably
stole the show as a featured guest artiste at the Marionette’s
show for Music Festival winners at Queen’s Hall last
month.
“I
like the viola because it has a variety of roles. Sometimes
you play the melody if the melody is low and it also keeps
the rhythm or accompanies the melody itself. The variety
of roles makes it interesting,” says Herbert.
Although some people think of the viola as a limited instrument,
Herbert insists that it provides the same opportunities
as any other instrument.
“It
all depends on what you want to do with the viola. Any instrument
helps you to express yourself. It’s a way to get out
there and throw yourself at the world.”
Andrews agrees. She says a violin opens up a world of expression.
“And it becomes like your third arm,” she says.
Both girls now enjoy the experience of opening up their
world to other students. “I like the experience of
teaching people how to use instruments,” says Herbert.
“I think teaching will definitely be part of my future.”
She hopes to study music at the Festival Centre for the
Creative Arts at UWI or even study abroad. She too wants
to do something with business. “But music is a strong
part of my life. Music is very important to me. I had a
lot of times when I was stressed out with school or problems,
but when I started to practice or play with the group, it
was like the problems didn't exist at all.”
And performing with an orchestra, both girls say, provides
a sense of discipline, dedication and devotion. “Any
time you have a bunch of people from different backgrounds
you learn a lot,” says Herbert. “You learn cooperation.”
The orchestra, in a sense, becomes another family, which
is important to Herbert, who is never far from her family
and friends. The inside of her viola case is filled with
pictures she has stuck to the red velvet lining. “I
can see all the people I love just before I go on stage,”
says Herbert. Perhaps that is the secret of the hauntingly
breathtaking music that Herbert makes every time her bow
glides across those viola strings.
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