The North Caicos Stars, a band of junkanoo students from North Caicos will be attending a workshop and parade in Nassau, Bahamas to learn all aspects of Junkanoo Music, and also how to fashion Junkanoo costumes.
Cynclair Musgrove, former District Commissioner for North Caicos is managing the students, and who will also make the trip said all the students attend the Raymond Gardiner High School on that island. The average age of the band is 14 years old.
One of the members, JNeyo Altidor, who described playing with the seven-member band to be a passion for all of them, told NewslineTCI that from the workshop in The Bahamas, they hope to gain more experience at playing additional instruments, learn to create more tunes thereby increasing in popularity and recognition, to the point of playing overseas.
“We plan to take it worldwide. We want to play over the world. The feedback that we are getting from the community is that we are a very good band, and they think that we can go places. It has reached a point where people want to pay us to play at their events,” Altidor said.
Lorenz Handfield, another of the band members, echoed Altidor’s sentiments that the community has fallen in love with the band, ands has thrown its weight behind them, inviting them to functions, and always lending their encouragements.
Lorenz told NewslineTCI that not only does the North Caicos Stars wants to be a force to be reckoned with on the Junkanoo music scene, but who would like to place North Caicos on the tourism map.
“For a long time, we have been trying to establish North Caicos as a tourism spot, because when tourists come to the Turks and Caicos they only focus on Provo. And so, that is why we put ‘North Caicos Stars’ on our band’s name because we want to be specific to people where we come from,” Lorenz said.
He noted that despite spending a great deal of time on Providenciales, North Caicos is where his heart is.
“It was a little band that used to perform in Primary School at the Adelaide Oemler, and then our PE teacher and Ms Musgrove decided that we should form a band,” Lorenz pointed out. He said the that the workshop should provide them the knowledge to learn to play other instruments and create their own tunes.
He said the band had played at several high-profile events, including the 50th anniversary of the Raymond Gardiner High School…the concert featuring an oversea artiste, and the anniversary dinner.
In the meantime, Musgrove said the sponsorships to make the Bahamas travel a reality, has been very encouraging from the community.
“We have people who have signed on immediately. We have the Premier’s Office, the MP (Hon. Arlington Musgrove), as well as our government. Everybody is pledging their full support, because they see the benefit for something like this,” Musgrove said.
She added: “And these are young men who have already possessed leadership qualities. It is amazing watching them practice…they do not have any adult supervision, but they work as a team. They are learning on to tune their instruments until they sound right…they have been doing it from Primary School.”
Musgrove pointed out that Mrs Janet Walkin Principal RGHS, who she described as a silent giant, continues to play a pivotal role ensuring that they seize opportunities for exposure and development. She also pointed out that the support from the parents and guardian has been invaluable, noting that they have thrown their full weight behind the students and their musical development.
Musgrove told NewslineTCI that at one point the band, which was scheduled to render a performance at a prayer breakfast on that island, was forced to be the main band for the day, after musicians scheduled to play at the event were a no-show. She said that they caught everyone by surprise with their professionalism.