Cayman Arts Festival to feature more genres and local talent

When the curtain rises for the first event of the 2025 Cayman Arts Festival on 6 February, it will mark the beginning of the most diverse festival in the organisation’s 21-year history. Although the festival usually concentrates on European classical music, this year’s events will expand to include a variety of genres or origins.

Cayman Arts Festival Executive Director Marius Gaina said variety is something the Cayman public wants. “Our surveys have shown that even though our audiences love the classical music events we present, they also would like to hear other genres of music,” he said. “This year, we’ve tried to offer a wider range of events and even some of our classical performances will be a little different from ones in the past that featured the works of Beethoven, Bach, Mozart and other European composers.”

Gaina pointed to the first event on Thursday 6 February as an example. While it will still feature classical music pieces, their origins are all from Africa. In this event, Nigerian-Romanian pianist Rebeca Omordia will join with other performers - including Cayman Arts Festival Artistic Director Glen Inanga and renowned double bassist Leon Bosch - to perform a rendition of her highly acclaimed “African Concert Series.” The concert will showcase the works of some of Africa’s most influential past and present classical composers.

On Saturday, 8 February, the Sacconi Quartet, a string ensemble, will feature more traditional classical music pieces by composers from France, Russia and England. The day before that concert, the Sacconi Quartet will perform a similar free concert only for school students.

Another feature of this year’s Cayman Arts Festival is the heavy involvement of local musicians, which will be an element of the final four events of the festival. “We have always featured local musicians in our concerts,” said Gaina, “but this year there will be even more. Music education for children is a key part of Cayman Arts Festival’s mandate and giving our students opportunities to perform is vital to their development as musicians. Of course, we also want to give our adult musicians - some of whom are alumni of our programmes - an opportunity to showcase their talents as well.”

The first event heavily featuring local student talent, which will take place Sunday, 9 February, is the performance of the Cayman Youth Choir - an entity funded by Cayman Arts Festival - along with jazz pianist and composer Jon Weber and New York Cabaret singers KT Sullivan, Natalie Douglas Carole J. Bufford and Arbender Robinson. These singers specialise in performing the classic songs that make up what is known as The Great American Songbook.

Then on Thursday, 13 February, the CAF Youth Camerata - an orchestra made up from the best students in Cayman Arts Festival’s music education programme - will perform a concert with virtuoso visiting classical violinist Irina Muresanu. Also performing in that concert is the extraordinarily gifted Caymanian cellist, Dequan Smith, who will be visiting home from his advanced music studies in the United Kingdom.

All of this year’s Cayman Arts Festival will take place at the Harquail Theatre, with the exception of one. On Friday, 14 February, the genre will turn to gospel music as the UK-based Mark De-Lisser Singers teams up with the First Baptist Church Choir to perform an uplifting and joyous concert at First Baptist Church.

The Cayman Arts Festival concludes on Saturday 15 February with Beneil Miller and his Reggae Orchestra. This event, which features all local musicians, will offer a fusion of the jazz and reggae genres.

For a full description and schedule of events, or to purchase tickets, visit www.caymanartsfestival.com .