Michael Reckord, Gleaner Writer

Even before Jamaica's record-breaking performance in the Beijing Olympics in August, the island had won medals in another Olympics. That was the fifth World Choir Olympics, a competition held every two years in different countries.

This year it was held in Graz, Austria, from July 9-19, and Jamaica's 45-member choir, Nexus, earned medals in all four events they entered. The choir placed 14th among 96 participating countries, with a total of 441 choirs and 20,000 individual performers. Nexus won one gold, one silver and two bronze medals and in fact placed as high as they could. Organiser and conductor, Hugh Douse, told The Sunday Gleaner that because Jamaica only entered one choir and the rules allowed only four entries per choir, Nexus could not have placed any higher.

"Some countries had 14, 15 choirs and more," he said. "Austria had 44, Korea had 40 plus. Jamaica must have been the most successful individual choir," Douse said.A highlight of the competition, said Douse, was the appreciation shown to Nexus by the audiences. The impact was "remarkable", he said.

Another organiser, Rosina Moder, who was herself born in Austria and studied in Graz, told The Sunday Gleaner about the success of Jamaica Day, which saw nearly 12 hours of music - classical, pop, mento and reggae - by Nexus being delivered to enthusiastic audiences. She also mentioned an incident which became the talk of the competition in which, during the Bob Marley medley, the judges put down their pens and started to dance.

Motorcade

She spoke of Nexus' passion, which enabled them to begin rehearsing immediately after arriving in Graz at 7 a.m. after an 18-hour bus ride from Brussels, where they arrived by plane from Montego Bay. "They had their first competition at four o'clock that same afternoon," she explained.

Moder said Nexus was determined to go to the next Choir Olympics in 2010 in China and she appealed to the Government for help with expenses. "We don't want a motorcade, we don't want national honours," she said, clearly referring to the awards given to our Olympic athletes. "But the arts need more attention. Just pay our debts." The debt incurred for the trip to Austria is still being paid off, she revealed.

Nexus won gold for the Folklore category, which included mento favourites Rookumbine and Dis Long Time Gal, Noel Dexter's arrangement of Bright Soul and Calamfunduwah, as well as the popular Revival Suite. They won a silver medal in the Popular Music Category with arrangements by Douse and Andre Waugh of the music of Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff, Chalice, Junior Gong and Junior Reid. The bronze medals came in the Spirituals and Gospels and in the Contemporary Composers categories. In those categories, Nexus featured the works of Gladys Mills-Douse, Dr Olive Lewin, Noel Dexter, Kathy Brown and Hugh Douse.

Standing ovations

The slogan of the 2008 World Choir Olympics was 'Singing Together Brings Nations Together', and it was epitomised during a seminar, Nexus being one of the presenting choirs. Nexus' choreographer, Oris Shaw, led singers from Mexico, Chile, China, Indonesia, The Philippines, Latvia, Estonia, Austria, Serbia, the United States and The Bahamas as they tried to learn from the song-and-dance presentation style of Jamaica, particularly in the folk genre.

In addition to the scheduled competition performances, Nexus appeared at many encounter concerts all over Styria, the Austrian province in which the city of Graz is situated. At each event the company received standing ovations and encores.

Nexus' concert version of Bob Marley's One Love opened the gala concert of the city of Leoben's Classical Summer Music Festival 'Sommerphilharmonie Leoben'. This performance led the cultural city councillor of Leoben to invite the Jamaican delegation to be guests of honour at a performance of Mozart's opera 'The Magic Flute' and to view the city's Grand Viking Exhibition.

Marley meets Mozart was the title of the celebration of 'Jamaica Day Graz' on Saturday, July 12. Nexus, with classical soprano Carline Waugh and jazz pianist Kathy Brown, accompanied by Jamaican jazz bassist Alvis Reid and drummer Jeremy Ashbourne, the popular duo Dre & KJ and the upcoming Reggae band, From The Deep, were the featured acts in the near 12-hour musical marathon.

The session ended with Nexus performing their medal winning rendition of Marley's One Love.