What does it take to become Bandmaster of the Bermuda Regiment?

If the name is Dwight Robinson, the answer is: an initial invitation to join the band ?for a little extra practice?, becoming hooked, and then following up with years of study and performances.

It was as a young student at Purvis Primary that the son of Mr. and Mrs. Gladwin Robinson, who is today known as Bandmaster Robinson, was first introduced to the wonderful world of music via such instruments as the melodica, xylophone and recorder, but it wasn?t until he moved on to Berkeley Institute that he began to take music seriously ? thanks in part to his older brother Dwayne, who brought home various instruments that he too would try to play. In addition, the school?s then-music teacher, Major Kenneth Dill, who was also the Regiment Band?s Director of Music, recognised his potential.

The trumpet became Mr. Robinson?s primary instrument, and he duly sat a series of Associated Board of the Royal School of Music exams. Then one day Major Dill invited him to come up to Warwick Camp and sit in with the Band ?for a little extra practice?.

?I fell for it big time,? the new Bandmaster smiles. ?As far as my musical development was concerned, it was obviously a good move, otherwise I wouldn?t be here today. I started playing with the Regiment Band in 1984 and formally joined in April of that year as a boy soldier. I was just 13 years old.?

Goal-oriented and dedicated, he continued to play with the band while pursuing higher studies at the Bermuda College, and again while working in the private sector, part of which included the hospitality industry. Ironically, while he enjoyed interacting with people as part of his job, it was the anti-social hours which eventually caused a re-think.

?And here I am, a number of years later, working anti-social hours,? he laughs, referring to the Band?s many evening and weekend engagements.

?But you grow up and look at things in a different perspective, and you don?t mind.?

In 1993, deciding that music was his true calling, he enrolled in the Bachelor of Arts in Music Education programme at Clark Atlanta University.

?It was a good learning experience, academically, musically and socially,? he says. ?As music majors we were required to demonstrate a level of proficiency in all instruments ? brass, woodwind and percussion ? and also to play in performances. My interest in choral music led me to sing in the university?s Philharmonic Society choir, and I also played in the marching band, the concert band, and with a percussion ensemble.?

With an eye to the future, Mr. Robinson wisely took extra music education courses which would qualify him to teach music, and this he did following his graduation in 1998 when he returned to his old alma mater, Berkeley Institute.

?I enjoyed that,? he remembers. ?I managed to raise a band of about 40 students while I was there, and we played a couple of places. They were a good group because they worked very hard.?

Not only did Mr. Robinson commission his former band master at Clark Atlanta University to write a special piece or the Berkeley band, but also the gentleman came to Bermuda to conduct it.

All the while, of course, Mr. Robinson continued his association with the Bermuda Regiment Band, and says that ?over a period of time? the job of Bandmaster became attractive to him, even as he was aware that a prerequisite would be completing a three-year Bandmaster?s course at Kneller Hall, the Royal Military School of Music in Middlesex, England. Then, in June 2000 came the word from Major Dill: He had secured a space for the aspiring Bandmaster at Kneller Hall.

?It was a bit of a fast ball because I was right at the end of the school year,? Mr. Robinson says. ?I think I had three months before I had to report there in September, 2000 for training.?

For the next three years he studied what he calls ?copious amounts of musical history, harmony, orchestration, conducting? as well as composing and applied studies on his chosen instrument, the trumpet.

?It was very intense because in addition to the musical training we were required to do requisite military training and regular fitness training,? he says. ?We had to pass an annual personal weapons test and a combat fitness test. There were also things related to mess life: learning the protocol and all the other things that go with being a senior mess member. The Band Master is second only to the Regimental Sergeant Major in any British Army regiment.?

In addition to all that, the student bandmasters were required to conduct a series of public performances.

?It really was a pressure cooker situation for people who were not used to being in front of large groups of people and conducting them,? Bandmaster Robinson says. ?You were on the bandstand and there were 200 professional musicians in front of you. It was almost like being on a charging horse with no reins.?

Nonetheless, the keen Bermudian found it ?a valuable experience?, for which his days of conducting the marching band at Clark Atlanta University proved invaluable.

At the end of three years, proudly watched by family members, Mr. Robinson graduated from Kneller Hall with the British Army?s prized Certificate of Bandmastership as well as the Graham Wallace trophy for Best Overseas Student. The very next day, he was in Edinburgh, Scotland preparing the way for the Bermuda Regiment Band?s arrival for the Tattoo. Here he also made his debut as the new Bandmaster for the very first time, watched by audiences ultimately numbered in the millions worldwide thanks to television coverage.

?The musicians played very, very well and are to be commended,? Bandmaster Robinson says. ?For myself, having been on a 7.30 a.m. to 10 p.m. schedule at Kneller Hall, it was just another day on the job. You just go ahead and get it done. Every job is important to the people who are sponsoring the event.?

If the Edinburgh Tattoo was the highlight of his year, a ten-day tour with the Royal Gibraltar Regiment Band in Bosnia and Herzegovinia, which followed, was a close second.

?Initially, you were awestruck by the ravages of war which you saw throughout the city,? he says. ?The most poignant moment was in Mostar, where you could see what this part of the city was all about once the entire series of events was explained to us. It was amazing in the sense that, hopefully, I will never see anything like that again. On the other hand, it was an enriching experience and some day I would like to go back to Bosnia to see how the country is progressing.?

Venues at which the band performed included the Luciano Pavarotti Centre for the Arts ? a school whose students include children suffering from post traumatic stress disorder who came for music therapy, and others who were enhancing their musical development ? and also at the Stabilisation Force headquarters in Sarajevo.

Finally, in September this year Bandmaster Robinson returned home, and on October 1 officially took up his duties at Warwick Camp. Although still new in the saddle, the confident and ambitious Bermudian already has a vision of where he wants the band to be in the future, and he fully intends to put his own stamp on its leadership in time.

?As a musical organisation, the band is not where I would like it to be, and that is through no fault of the Director of Music or the musicians. It just happens to be the situation that the band is in at the present moment,? he says. ?Some of the ideas I have are a bit different to the Director?s. Hopefully in time I will either convince or not convince him, and when he retires I will do it anyway.?

For the next few years, however, he plans to work in harmony with his boss.

?I am not taking over just yet. My job is to assist the Director of Music, and I am happy with that,? he says. ?As far imposing my stamp on the band goes, I have to be careful that it does not conflict with anything Major Dill is planning to do because he is still the boss. Since I have been back, however, he has been working on other items so he has been generous in allowing me a degree of freedom.?

The handsome bachelor likens his long relationship with the band members to that of a family ?because we spend so much time with each other?.

?We feed off each other, and there are really good friendships,? he says. ?You find that particularly in musical organisations because you work in such an intimate environment. We all have to play our part in creating the same thing. It is a classic case of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts?.

Stressing that the posts of Bandmaster and Director of Music are separate, Warrant Officer Class 1 Robinson (to give him his full military rank) says he is looking forward to his new career.

?It will give me an opportunity to create something that is uniquely mine, for better or worse. The only person I will have to answer to is the Commanding Officer.?

Bandmaster Robinson?s long-term vision is for a ?full time musical organisation?.