Ancient Prison Comes Alive: Guest Blog Post by David Einhorn!
We are delighted that David Einhorn, BLUME Haiti Advisory Council member extraordinaire and long-time volunteer teacher in Haiti, has graced us with a wonderful account of the 2024 CEMUCHCA Summer Music Camp. Read on and enjoy!
An Ancient Prison Comes Alive with Music
Normally, the big story from BLUME’s largest summer music camp in 2024 would be that the students tackled Beethoven’s Leonore #3 Overture, a challenging staple of the orchestral repertoire. But nothing is normal in Haiti these days, not even the good stories too few and far between.
So this year’s overarching story was managing to hold the camp at all, and doing so by fitting campers from across the country into a former colonial prison being restored as a cultural center in Cap Haitian. The camp gave some 300 young musicians – many of them starving for music instruction after a year of lockdowns, shortages, and violence – the opportunity to enjoy three weeks of intense music studies and performances.
Haiti’s Institut de Sauveguard du Patrimoine National (ISPAN), along with the CEMUCHCA music program that runs the camp with support from BLUME Haiti, are collaborating to repurpose the prison, which dates to the 18th century and only closed in 1994. During the first week of the camp, the sounds of young musicians grappling with their new repertoire served as the soundtrack for final construction work installing roofing, stairways, bathrooms, and balconies just to make the facility habitable. A grant from Barbara’s Fund in Bethesda, Maryland, along with other generous donations, made possible the last-minute repairs.
Somehow it all worked. Despite the restoration being far from complete, despite dozens of students having to stay in tents or at a nearby school, despite torrential rains, and despite the hardships many students endured just to get there in the first place, young people from age 8 to their 20s flocked to the camp from 45 music schools in 9 of Haiti’s 10 departments – including a contingent from Port-au-Prince that braved the nine-hour bus ride to Cap from Haiti’s beleaguered capital.
“When you have a young generation that is deprived like this, that has nothing, this camp gives them a structure and a goal,” explained Neat Achille, ISPAN’s Director in Northern Haiti. “Even if there were some problems this first time around with the restoration work in progress, we now have a place where the students can play and stay and where we can hold the camp without worrying about tomorrow.”
CEMUCHCA has been running its year-round music programs on the grounds of the former prison for two years, but this summer marked the first time it was able to run a sleep-away camp there. Ultimately, operating camps in the former prison will allow for considerable cost savings, as CEMUCHCA and BLUME previously had to rent a facility each year for the summer camps.
Indeed, a highlight of the camp came when the music and the renovation converged: trumpeters poised on the restored courtyard balcony played La Péri by Paul Dukas to open the mid-session concert. Their clarion call would have been breathtaking under any circumstances, but it was even more meaningful knowing that only a few weeks earlier the elegant balcony had neither a balustrade nor stairs to reach it, and the courtyard itself was nothing more than a patch of overgrown weeds.
Steven Huang conducting La Péri in concert
As Spin Joseph, the President of CEMUCHCA explains, “our dream is to have a true music academy here not just to offer courses but to provide quality instruction that ensures students attain an acceptable skill level to continue on to become musicians. It’s difficult, but it’s possible, and the restoration is an important step towards making that happen.”
Under the steady baton of BLUME Haiti board member and guest conductor Steven Huang, the camp’s final concert in Cap Haitian’s main square, the Place des Armes, featured the symphony orchestra performing not only the Leonore Overture but also the Royal Fireworks Music by Handel and Retraite du Flambeau by Haitian composer Ludovic Lamothe. The orchestra for younger students and the concert and jazz bands also performed.
The concert culminated in what can only be described as a classical jam session, as both orchestras and the concert band came together to perform Dans Peyizan, a composition by CEMUCHCA instructor Tchoupy Hylaris that has become so popular it has now garnered over 180,000 likes on Facebook. With the composer himself leading the way as the pied piper on his electric violin, the piece featured the camp’s steaming percussion section, twirling cellos and basses, and even some sparkling dance moves in the violin section.
It was as much a celebration as a concert – an affirmation that in these troubled times in Haiti, musicians can still play, builders can still build, dreamers can still dream, and the joy of music will always be there for the taking.
View from the renovated courtyard
The next phase of the prison restoration includes transforming some two dozen prison cells into dorm rooms, renovating the shower and bathroom space, and roofing the kitchen area, which could then serve as a rehearsal space in case of rain. If you know of any construction firms that might be interested in supporting the renovation, please contact us at: info@blumehaiti.org
