Marionettes Chorale

Founded in 1963, Trinidad & Tobago's Marionettes Chorale is one of the Caribbean's most celebrated performing arts groups. Their Youth Chorale was formed in 1995, and their Children' Choir in 2012. Led by conductor and artistic director Gretta Taylor, the choirs mount at least two major productions a year. In the middle of 1963, a notice appeared in the Talk of Trinidad column of the Trinidad Guardian, announcing the formation of a new choir and inviting singers to come for an audition.

The response was tremendous. A few days later, outside a small house on Warner Street, a crowd of hopeful singers turned up to have their voices assessed. The small room with the big piano was soon crowded; latecomers stood outside on the sidewalk and, when their turn came, sang through the window. As the new choir's director was the music teacher at St Joseph's Convent (Port of Spain), Jocelyn Pierre, many of the young singers were past pupils. For male choristers, Jocelyn turned to her counterpart at Fatima College, Father Tim Corcoran, and recruited graduates from his Dominic Savio choir and to keen young voices from elsewhere.

And so the Marionettes Chorale was born, led by Jocelyn and co- director, June Williams-Thorne. Jocelyn and June ran the choir together until 1968 when June left. Jocelyn departed in 1974 to go to Canada to further her education. After a brief crisis of "succession", singing member Gretta Taylor was chosen to assume the role of conductor, with fellow member Susan Dore as her assistant, and founder member Joanne Mendes as secretary. The three ran the choir together through the end of 2011, when Enrique Ali succeeded Susan Dore as Assistant Musical Director upon her retirement. Caroline Taylor also joined the executive committee in 2011 as Assistant Artistic Director.

All the choir members, as well as both Taylors and Mendes, volunteer their time, unpaid. Members come from every sector of Trinidad and Tobago society, devoting two evenings a week throughout the year to rigorous rehearsals, plus plenty of extra work as production time approaches. Membership averages 80 in both the senior and junior groups.

The Marionettes compete on championship night at the T&T Music Festival, 1968