AT 84, SHE'S A
PIANIST AND
CRACKSHOT PANNIST
TEACHER SYLVIA ALSO COACHES YOUNGSTERS FOR
TWELVE AND UNDER
AND TEEN TALENT
Essiba Small
Sunday Guardian
December 12, 1999
Page 18
Her eyesight is failing, her memory is not that sharp and, because of
poor circulation she's not as fast on her feet as she used to be.
However,
84-year-old Sylvia Robin, owner of the Celeste School of Music in Barataria,
remains committed to teaching her students.
Born
in Belmont to Vincentian parents, Robin comes from a musical family.
"My
mother's family sang and my father's family played instruments like the
harmonium and cuatro." So it came
as no surprise that the eldest of three got into music. A mezzo-soprano, Robin played the piano,
mouth organ and flute. She pursued the
piano, and took lessons from a Miss Thompson, an organist from the St John's
Anglican Church and from Winifred Atwell the late celebrated pianist.
Robin
eventually became a teacher at the San Juan Government Primary School, and the
Chaguanas Government Secondary School where she taught music and physical
education.
"If
you were alert and ambitious in those days, you didn't sit down," she
said. The Celeste School of Music,
named after Robin's mother, began (though she can't remember when) with just
one student - her six-year-old relative.
In
those days, Robin's younger sister also taught music at home, and when she got
married, it was the big sister who inherited the students.
Word
soon spread among satisfied parents of Robin's work.
Fans
of the Citibank's Twelve and Under programme may also be familiar with
the name Celeste Music School because of the many contestants Robin has sent to
the show.
So
far she's had three Twelve and Under winners, the most recent being this year's
champ Joel King, and two Teen Talent winners.
Several of her students have secured places in the finals and among the
top three.
Robin,
who has never been to a live taping of any of the shows, said she doesn't force
her students to enter competitions but that she encourages them. "I believe that everyone should get
some exposure. I get a certain
satisfaction when they are in winners' row too."
Getting
the best out of her young students, whose ages range from 5 to 14, requires a
lot of patience. "More patience
than Job," she joked. "You
can't get vex with them - you have to get them relaxed and encourage them as
much as possible.
"Sometimes
I might tell a child to play something for me and he might not play it right,
but I commend him for trying anyway.
"And
you know the next time he plays it he will get it right?"
Robin's
piano classes usually start at four in the afternoon and really don't have a
set end time. "Because we have so
much fun we sometimes get carried away."
The
novice is taught the importance of time and rhythm ("I play and let them
clap to a tune they know and then I let them sing a little to test their ear
for the music.")
The
new students are usually timid, she said.
And so building their confidence is of utmost importance. "I usually break the ice by asking
about school, their baby sister or brother those sort of things." Robin's
classes are small on purpose.
"I
believe in giving each child special attention," she said. When she's not tutoring students, you can
almost always find Robin at the St Columbus Church in Barataria where she plays
the organ. She takes pride also in the
fact that she was instrumental in introducing the pan at St Columbus. Now hymns can be heard floating out of the
church every Sunday morning.
"When
I first heard the pan it was at a concert at the Roxy. I fell in love with it. It was no bang-bang kind of music, it was
classical. "I said I must get that
into the church."
"Esther
Batson was able to get some second hand pans and my nephew-in-law was the first
pan tutor."
Now
Robin, Batson, Patricia Patrick and Norma Shields handle the tutoring sessions
held at the church on Saturday mornings.
Robin described learning to play the pan. "It was so different to playing the piano. The note C is one way, the B note quite down
in Diego Martin and E in Sangre Grande,' she said with a chuckle.
Never
mind, she mastered the instrument.
Robin's only regret is that her voice is no longer as sweet as it used
to be long ago. "But I know how to
get that back - prayers," she said.
"This is no joke, everything I have, and all my success is through
Him. I don't ever be presumptuous to
say that I achieved everything by myself.
"I give all glory to God.
And this is something I'm very serious about."