Bermuda Festival of the Performing Arts: Tenors Unlimited

Festival Corner

If it sounds a little corny, believe me it is not! Last night’s Bermuda Festival of the Performing Arts performance by Tenors Unlimited brought the audience to their feet in appreciation for the quality of their voices, their selection of repertoire and their engaging personalities on stage. Individually the timbre of their voices was superb, and their harmonies were beautiful. Scott Ciscon, Jem Sharples and Paul Martin took us on a musical journey from Rigoletto to Sting and made opera sound like popular music and vice versa.

They were accompanied superbly by Bermudian pianist John Woolridge who, along with the Tenors, were called on unexpectedly to fill time during a fire alarm that interrupted the first set. Professional attitudes and amusing banter saved the day before they were able to get on with the show, and the audience was even treated to an impromptu version of Mr Woolridge’s composition, Proud to Be Bermudian which was warmly received. After the interval the group picked up where they left off, alternating between brilliant solo pieces by each member of the trio and soaring harmonies. They concluded both sets with two pieces accompanied by the 24-member Bermuda Festival choir, made up of singers selected by and conducted by choirmaster Kent Hayward. The strength of their voices took the four numbers they performed with the Tenors to new heights and left this writer marvelling at the results of their collaboration.

It was another superb evening of musical entertainment presented by the Bermuda Festival. If you do not have tickets for Saturday night you would be well advised to go on line and buy them at www.bdatix.bm.