The 17th Annual Grace, Kennedy Foundation Lecture will be held Today, March 15, 2005 at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel. This year’s presenter is Jamaican musicologist Marjorie Whylie who will speak on the topic, ‘Our Musical Heritage – The Power of the Beat’.

Ms. Whylie is an accomplished musicologist who, for the past five decades, has made an immeasurable contribution to the development of Jamaican music. She is a bandleader, composer and arranger, a performer and a music educator. At age 15 she gave her debut concert at the Institute of Jamaica presenting the works of Bach, Beethoven, Chopin and Debussy.

A graduate of The University of the West Indies (UWI), Ms. Whylie also pursued a diploma in Music Education from the Jamaica School of Music (now incorporated into the Edna Manley College for the Visual and Performing Arts). She subsequently served as Head of the school’s Folk Music Research Department and, in 1982, was appointed Director of Studies. She currently holds the position of Director of Music at the UWI.

She has consulted on several projects including productions for the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission, the Tourism Product Development Company, the Jamaica Tourist Board, and Sandals Resorts International. She chaired the review panel for the music curriculum in the Reform of Secondary Education (ROSE) project and since 1994 has been the coordinator of the JCDC Mento Documentation Project.

She has received many honors for her work in music and music education, including the national honour of Order of Distinction. In 1997 she was inducted into the Jamaica Jazz Hall of Fame and, in August 2004, she receives the Prime Minister’s award for Excellence in Theatre and Music.

Ms. Whylie joins the company of distinguished Grace, Kennedy lecturers. The inaugural lecture was delivered in 1989 by the late Hon. G. Arthur Brown, former Governor of the Bank of Jamaica. Successive lecturers include Sir Alister McIntyre, Hon. Don Mills, Revd. Burchel Taylor, Professor Elizabeth Thomas-Hope, Dr. Keith Panton, and
Dr. Pauline Milbourn.

Copies of the lectures in print are available from the Grace, Kennedy Foundation.

Posted: March 2005