Local Community benefits from Cuban expertise

GRAND LIDO Negril has embarked upon a community music programme where several students from within the community are taught at no cost to play the piano. The programme was recently expanded to include the teaching of the violin and guitar. Some twenty students are to benefit from the expanded programme, in addition to the 15 who are currently participating.

Principal of Negril All-Age from whose school several of the students were selected for the expanded programme said that "the programme will be beneficial to all concerned as music requires discipline and sharpens listening skills." She continued by saying that she was happy "as many students would otherwise not have been exposed to these instruments."

Mercedes Oliva currently spearheads the teaching of music at the resort and she has over twenty years experience in teaching children and adults to play the piano. She has played in several major concert halls in Cuba and is a graduate of the Institute Superior of Music in Havana, Cuba.

Mercedes who is fluent in both Spanish and English said that she was motivated by the interest the children expressed in learning to play the piano. In addition she said that "Jamaican children were very talented and this made the classes interesting and fun."

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