Cultural fraternity says farewell to Bynoe Charles today

Na­tion­al­ly renowned mez­zo-so­pra­no, Her­mi­na By­noe Charles, will be laid to rest to­day. She died on Feb­ru­ary 21.

The Mar­i­onettes Chorale recog­nised By­noe Charles’ con­tri­bu­tion fol­low­ing her 18 years with the en­sem­ble, where she was re­ferred to as an hon­orary al­to. Mar­i­onettes high­light­ed her role with­in the con­tral­to sec­tion, where she took part in re­hearsals, con­certs and oth­er ac­tiv­i­ties and main­tained strong ties with mem­bers of the en­sem­ble.

Mar­i­onettes said By­noe Charles con­tributed to per­for­mances across Trinidad and To­ba­go and that no two per­for­mances were the same. Mem­bers re­called gath­er­ing back­stage and at re­hearsals to lis­ten to her sing and not­ed her par­tic­i­pa­tion in for­mal pre­sen­ta­tions and in­for­mal mo­ments with the group.

“We will miss her ter­ri­bly. We will miss that glo­ri­ous voice, and us gath­er­ing to lis­ten to her back­stage and side­stage to hear what new mag­ic she would bring to each per­for­mance — be­cause no two were the same,” the chorale said.

“We will miss get­tin’ buff for burst­ing out laugh­ing in re­hearsal be­cause she’d mut­tered some fun­ny com­ment un­der her breath while keep­ing an an­gel­ic, in­no­cent ex­pres­sion on her face so no-one could guess she was the in­sti­ga­tor. We will miss her mak­ing us cry in re­hearsal with soul-stir­ring singing in one mo­ment — on­ly to be win­ing to so­ca by the snack shop on the street cor­ner in the next. She was one of one.”

In a sep­a­rate trib­ute, The Ly­di­ans said, “Her­mi­na’s voice was more than re­mark­able, it was ex­pres­sive, com­mand­ing, and filled with heart. Through her years of ded­i­cat­ed ser­vice, she helped to shape the choral land­scape of Trinidad and To­ba­go, leav­ing an in­deli­ble mark on au­di­ences and fel­low mu­si­cians alike. Her artistry, dis­ci­pline, and pas­sion for ex­cel­lence em­bod­ied the very spir­it of choral mu­sic.”

The Mar­i­onettes Chorale ex­tend­ed con­do­lences to her rel­a­tives, friends and sup­port­ers across the is­lands and thanked those who cared for her in re­cent months.

It al­so an­nounced plans to post record­ings of her per­for­mances in the com­ing days to pre­serve her con­tri­bu­tion to the or­gan­i­sa­tion and the mu­sic com­mu­ni­ty.