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National Schools Soca Monarch Competition |
Valton Matthews Speaks about the National Schools Soca Monarch Competition
Staff Article
Recorded: January 21, 2006
TRINISOCA: It is the end of the National Schools Soca Monarch 2006, and Mr. Valton Matthews will now share a bit of information with us about the event. Mr. Matthews, what is your role in this event?
VALTON: I am the Production Manager of Caribbean Prestige Foundation, who hosted the National Schools Soca Monarch Competition.
TRINISOCA: Tell me about the choice of venue for this event. Would it be an event that will be held only on these grounds and what made you choose this particular venue?
VALTON: No. This is the first time we are actually using this part of the Queens Park Savannah to host the Schools Soca Monarch. In previous years we have used school halls. Last year we were at Club Caribbean. This year, in looking for a venue we decided to come to the Savannah. Unfortunately, the changing of the weather has forced us to move from outdoors to indoors...we can't argue with god.
VALTON: One, it's just sheer space...just finding accommodation. This was one of the venues that were open to us. We decided that in terms of access for a lot of people it is easy, so we decided to come to the Savannah.
TRINISOCA: Do you have any idea of the judges names? What can you share about the judges in terms of work?
VALTON: Certainly. The Chief Judge is Roland Gordon and the other Judges are Judy Noel and Josephine Torrel Taylor.
VALTON: Roland is a Chief Judge and a musician. He has been involved in the Arts for many years. This year he did the music for Barataria in the Best Village Competition and he has done arrangements for school steelbands. Josephine Taylor is also a musician and Judy Noel is a practicing Drama Teacher. I know Judy doing stage management and theater acts. She is the holder of a Theater Arts Diploma from the Creative Arts Center. Josephine is at the Malabar Secondary School. They are the three judges we used today.
TRINISOCA: Are you satisfied with the performances, and how do you think the youths are performing in Soca today?
VALTON: I think we have a wealth of talent. When I listen and look at the performances of a lot of these young ones, it speaks for itself. I know we will have better performers in the future because at a tender age they are rounding off their performance level. We are certainly producing some very good performers and hopefully inside of there, some good writers too. We encourage the children to get involved in their composition for the Schools Soca Monarch.
TRINISOCA: What do you think needs to be improved in these young performers and what can they do to better themselves?
VALTON: I think it is a learning process. I have spoken to students who have told me today that they have learned so much from being in the competition. For instance, their confidence level has risen and they are able to conduct themselves not only better on stage, but better all round. Through the competition they learn about performance. They learn about their own voice and finding their range and delivering a really good performance. They learn other aspects of stage in terms of dress and performance. That was the purpose of the workshop. Prior to the start of the Schools Soca Monarch every year, we do seminars and workshops for teachers and students. We inform them and give them not just guidelines, but we give them some fundamentals to work with.
TRINISOCA: After the Junior Soca Monarch what do you think is next in line, especially for the top Junior Performers that we have here?
VALTON: Well...we have already seen over the last seven years of the Junior Soca Monarch kids moving on into the Senior Soca Monarch. Patrice Roberts represented Toco for about three to four years and then moved directly into the National Arena. We have had people like Andrew Prescott, Marcell Bennette, Orlando Octave and many more who are moving from Junior Soca Monarch into the National Arena and giving the Seniors a good fight.
TRINISOCA: What do you personally wish to see happen regarding this whole event?
VALTON: One of the things that we hope to see happen from this event, apart from it producing good all round performers like good singers, writers, dancers and so on, is that through the process of the Schools Soca Monarch, that there is a link with the formal education at all levels and the music that they are probably doing in school. It's important to understand that there is a link. You can learn not only your notes and so on, but you will also be able to apply that to the music that you sing. So often the music that you do in school or that you do in terms of classes where the background is classical, some teachers are unable to relate to the indigenous form.
TRINISOCA: From what I understand, Soca isn't just vocals...it's also instruments and so on. Are you aware of a push towards learning the instruments in schools?
VALTON: Well...what I know is that you have a greater art program happening in schools. You have music, dance and drama. You have a lot of performance arts in the schools now. We are hoping that through the National Schools Soca Monarch all these components can come together, so that when our children leave school they can make better choices. Art now is a full fledged career. Just like football, when you realize that you can have a talent and move into major league and play football. We are no longer a society producing only doctors and lawyers or just craft people. We are also a society that can produce good sports men and good artistes. We see the National School Soca Monarch as having... foundation for that to happen.
TRINISOCA: In terms of how the performers dress are you all trying to push them to wear so-called decent clothes, or is it anything goes?
VALTON: It's not anything goes at all. This is a school project. On the forms there are rules and the dress code is one of them. We stipulate that there are guidelines to be followed, and students who do not abide by those guidelines can be eliminated from the competition.
TRINISOCA: Can you give me some other important examples of the tenet of the competition?
VALTON: Yes...the first example is the children between the ages of ten and eighteen years old has to be in school. The competition has to be basically sanctioned by the school. The students would take the form and fill it out with the principal's signature. They have to comply with that. Apart from knowing the criteria of the competition like melody, lyrics, arrangements and so on, they are pretty well versed in terms of what the rules are before coming into the competition. It is not a case of a child entering and not know that there are rules and guidelines. If we see performances that are sort of on the edge, we would talk to the student and let them know that they are a bit risky and that they should look into it.
TRINISOCA: Any final words?
VALTON: You are doing what you are doing right now to help which is to put the National Schools Soca Monarch out there to other audiences that we do not reach except through just going to the schools and media. Thank you for spending the whole day with us.
Disorganization Mars Junior Soca Monarch
JNR Soca Monarch Preliminaries in pictures:
www.trinisoca.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=34720
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