In Wednesday’s (7/14) Miami Herald, Trenton Daniel writes about the efforts of violinist Antoine Romel Joseph to rebuild a music school in Haiti. Joseph was trapped for 18 hours in the rubble of the January earthquake that killed his wife and unborn son. “As he worked toward recovery with doctors in Miami and Port-au-Prince, a flicker of hope became an idea. And then a plan. Now, Joseph is trying to reopen his school—the New Victorian Music School—and, at the same time, raise money to build a center to nurture young Haitian musical talent and lure tourists…. ‘Every year people make their plans to go to Tanglewood,’ Joseph said as a tap-tap, a brightly painted bus, bounced by on a dirt road. ‘It would be nice to hear people in Santo Domingo come and say, wow, there’s this festival in Haiti.’ The project is still very much in the initial stages. He’s assembling a board of directors, laying out a five-year plan, consulting an architect, and collecting donations ($20,000 to date, Joseph said). He dreams big—a 1,200-seat concert hall, a conservatory with recital space, and a dormitory to house students. The students would eventually become teachers, spreading music through the provinces.”
Posted July 15, 2010
