THE BEAUTIFUL MELODY produced by the singular stringed instrument was enough to sweep anyone off their feet. But multiply it by three and throw in a keyboardist, all working in perfect harmony, and that’s when the magic began.
The newest quartet in Barbados, Amazing Kemistry, all past students of the Barbados Community College music programme, comprises two violin and viola players Katrina Forde and Dwain Gill, cellist and founder Randy Moore and keyboardist Dexter Snaggs.
The group is over a year old.
Inspired by his love of strings and his desire to fill the void of musical quartets in Barbados, Moore set out to make this concept a reality.
“After I started playing the cello I contacted Katrina with the idea . . . from there she told me about Dwyane, whom she thought was an excellent player,” he said.
The journey to find a fourth member to make the group a true string quartet proved to be a challenging endeavour, one which Moore was close to giving up on. Then came Snaggs, who proved to be the perfect companion to the other three members.
Moore, who is also a guitar tutor, a constable in the Royal Barbados Police Force and a guitar and saxophone player in the police band, said he was confident that the quartet would go far, not only in Barbados, but the wider Caribbean.
“It’s something that people generally like,” he said. “People just generally like to hear string players and we are not really sticking to classical, per se, we are slightly going outside the box by playing pop music and the like. So I think people would be interested to hear us.”
Though Moore is the head of the group, it would be nothing without the passion of Forde, Gill and Snaggs.
Forde has 14 years of experience as a violin player and shares her passion with her young music students, tutoring members of the Barbados Youth Orchestra and kids from the ages of three and up.
Teaching music to the young students was, in her own words, vital and important to the development of young minds.
“Especially when they [the kids] have to learn mathematics, it helps with concentration and the children in nursery school who do our violin programme are usually more settled and attentive,” said Forde.
Gill, also a tutor in the Barbados Youth Orchestra, has ten years of experience with the violin and viola, but is a proficient instrumentalist capable of playing the guitar, trombone and steel pan, to name a few.
He was elated when he got the call to join the quartet and was looking forward to doing new and great things as a part of it.
The final member, Snaggs, a constable in the Royal Barbados Police Force, plays the keyboard and French horn as part of the Police Band. He was a necessary puzzle piece in providing that full sound that Moore was looking for and which Snaggs was happy to be a part of.
“I think what he’s doing now is pretty fresh with the string group, especially in Barbados, doing pop and that fusion of contemporary sound and alternative music,” said Snaggs.
As they look to grow their brand, Amazing Kemistry is currently in the process of shooting music videos and recording original compositions. (SOM)
