Institutions and Festivals
The two most prominent music institutions in the Virgin Islands are the Island Center (on St. Croix) and the Reichold Center (on St. Thomas). Both these centers provide a venue for concerts of Western classical music, jazz, musical theater and international pop stars. St. Croix is also home to a public performance venue in St. Gerald's Hall in Frederiksted, where locals dance quadrilles and otherwise perform.
Traditional Virgin Islander folk music festivals were performed until the late 1950s, and were based around costumed masquerading. With the advent of formal celebrations based around parades and festival village, local folk traditions declined, replaced by pan-Caribbean elements like calypso, moko jumbie stilt dancers and visiting performers from other islands.
Read more about this topic: Music Of The Virgin Islands
Famous quotes containing the words institutions and/or festivals:
“... a nation to be strong, must be united; to be united, must be equal in condition; to be equal in condition, must be similar in habits and feeling; to be similar in habits and feeling, must be raised in national institutions as the children of a common family, and citizens of a common country.”
—Frances Wright (1795–1852)
“This is certainly not the place for a discourse about what festivals are for. Discussions on this theme were plentiful during that phase of preparation and on the whole were fruitless. My experience is that discussion is fruitless. What sets forth and demonstrates is the sight of events in action, is living through these events and understanding them.”
—Doris Lessing (b. 1919)