ACCLAIMED PIANIST DANNY MIXON will be in Barbados this weekend to conduct two workshops.

Musician/administrator Antonio Boo Rudder said Mixon would be looking at improvisation, which was one of the weakest areas of musicianship in Barbados.

Rudder said he had been in constant discussion over the years with Mixon, who has been coming to Barbados on a regular basis. Last year they met with head of the music programme at the Barbados Community College (BCC), Roger Gittens to see how Mixon could give something to Barbados.

"He [Mixon] thought it made sense if he was here on a regular basis, that occasionally he could be afforded the opportunity to interact with the students at the Community College. I thought that that would have been perfect, because unfortunately one of the weakest areas we have in Barbados is the whole question of improvisation. We have quite excellent instrumentalists, but when it comes to soloing they all fall down. As a result, we have very few strong soloists," Rudder submitted.

He said that outside of Arturo Tappin, Andre Woodvine and Ebbie Gilkes there were not many "strong" soloist on the island.

The workshops will be held at the BCC tomorrow at 5 p.m. and on Saturday at 3 p.m. It is open to students of the BCC, local musicians and participants on the COSCAP Fast Forward Production Workshop.

"There will also be instruments so that you not only hear talk, but you can actually play and experience approaches to improvisation. So it's an opportunity to strengthen an area where, I believe, if we're honest, we'll admit that we're very weak," Rudder stated. (YB)