This is the forty-fourth article in our series on famous Guyanese artistes written and edited by
Dr Vibert C Cambridge. Dr Cambridge can be contacted by e-mail at cambridg@ohio.edu
Joyce Aaron-Elcock (nee Langford) has had an influential musical career that has spanned more than seven decades. Over this period, she has trained many students and brought joy to audiences in Guyana and the United States.
She was the daughter of Felix Adolphus and Mary Alicia Langford, and was the first girl and the fourth child in a family of ten children (seven boys and three girls).
Joyce grew up in a home where both parents were musicians. Her father was a self-taught violinist, and her mother played the piano. They encouraged their children to explore the world of music.
A Brinsmead piano had a special place in the Langford home, and according to Courtney Pianos of Oxford, Brinsmead pianos, "both grand and upright were regarded as fine pianos, with a wonderfully warm, rich tone, and beautifully crafted."
According to Joyce's brother Ulric Langford, "nearly all the Langfords played music, so the piano was always in use. The younger ones had to wait until it was vacant, and that was hardly the case." He remembers his sister practising daily.
Mr Nichols was one of the piano tuners who serviced the family's piano.
Joyce was born in D'Urban Street, Wortmanville. After the death of her mother in 1936, the family moved to Crown and Irving Streets in Queenstown, and later to Subryanville.
Joyce's musical education started when she was nine, her first teacher being Mrs Kate Holder. Her other teachers included Mr Francis Percival Loncke and Mrs Eleanor Kerry. In 1947, she earned the Licentiate of the Royal School of Music (LRSM) in Pianoforte (performance). According to the Argosy Christmas Tide (1947), only three other women earned the LRSM diploma that year - Miss Bernice Waddell (violin), Miss Cecilene Baird (pianoforte), and Miss Lucille Richardson (pianoforte). In the process of earning this qualification, Joyce won two exhibitions from the Trinity College of Music, and the Colette Medal for being the top student in British Guiana.
The year 1947 is significant in Joyce's life: she married Reginald (Reggie) Aaron, who was also an active musician. He was a tenor who sang with and conducted the Maranatha Male Voice Choir. He led a quartet from that choir to victory at a music festival in Trinidad and Tobago.
Joyce Aaron-Elcock's early musical career was an exciting one. She was part of a musical community that supported two orchestras and an active concert circuit of public and private salon concerts. Among her contemporaries were Cecilene 'Lee' Baird, Daphne Davis (now Scott), Inez Davis, Doreen Dolphin, Shirley Garraway, Janet Hunte, Joyce Laljee, Doreen McGregor, Cradlyn Spence, and Moses Telford.
She remembers fondly the two dual piano concerts she and Shirley Garraway presented at St Rose's Convent and the Young Women's Christian Association.
Joyce was sought after as an accompanist. She was regularly invited to accompany the British Guiana Police Force Male Voice Choir and participated in the first concert organized by that choir. In that concert, she and Doreen McGregor performed the Blue Danube.
For 14 years, Joyce was the accompanist for the Bishop's High School choirs, and along with Florizel Francis, she was for many seasons also an official accompanist for the British Guiana Music Festivals.
Joyce Aaron-Elcock also shared her musical talents with the wider Guyanese community through radio broadcasts. She remembers presenting a series of half-hour recitals on Sundays. Those programmes were commissioned by the Bureau for Public Information (BPI), an important institution in the development of public broadcasting in Guyana. The programmes
were produced by Mr H R Harewood.
In addition to being a leading light in the Guyanese classical music scene, she also raised a family. Joyce and Reggie were the parents of four children (three boys and one girl). As in the Langford family, all of the children played music. Colin, the eldest, established a reputation as a trombonist and performed with the Guyana Police Force band and the innovative Solo Sounds International. Keith, the Guyana Scholar, was a pianist and played duets with his mother and won first place awards at British Guiana Music Festivals. Julian also played the piano. The only girl, Andrea, played the piano and went on to earn a bachelor's degree in music in the United States.
A dominant attribute in Joyce Aaron-Elcock's life has been passing skills and knowledge on to the younger generation. She is fondly remembered as a music teacher. She was a part of the distinguished group of women and men who were responsible for educating Guyanese musically for almost four decades.
Joyce had many private students, among them being Bertley Bakker; Mabel Daniels; Doreen, Cecilia, and Rosalind Dolphin; Everette Jarvis; Ivor Phillips; Esther Martinborough; Andrea Massey; Patricia Moore and the daughters of R R Baird. Many of her private students won distinctions in national music examinations.
Joyce was also the music mistress at Central High School from 1964-1978. She taught there in the mornings and accompanied the Bishop's High School choirs during the afternoon.
She is recognized as a member of a distinguished group of persons "who were instrumental in the formation of [the Guyana Music Teachers' Association on April 7, 1948." The other members of the group include Eleanor Kerry, Miriam Daniels, Shirley Garraway, Edna Jordan, Sybil Husbands, Ivy N Loncke, Lynette Dolphin, Lucille Dewar, Bernice Waddell, Clothilde Casey, Winifred McDavid, Berle Marshall, Peter Koulen, and Joseph Glasgow.
In 1976, Reggie Aaron passed away, and in 1978 Joyce migrated to the United States and lived in Aurora, Illinois. There she met and married Mr Audley Elcock, another Guyanese musician.
In Aurora Joyce continued to teach. She taught piano at the Swalley Music House from 1978 to 1981, following which she moved to Silver Springs, Maryland, where she still resides.
Joyce has always used her musical gifts to worship God. In Guyana, she played the Hammond organ at the Seventh Day Adventist Church on Church Street for 16 years. She has continued this in the United States and has been the pianist at the Tacoma Park Seventh Day Adventist Church, and is currently the pianist at the Ward of Hope Seventh Day Adventist Mission in Silver Springs, Maryland.
Joyce's musical contributions have been recognized by the Guyanese diaspora, and in 1988 she was inducted into Guyana Musicians Hall of Fame in New York.
Joyce Aaron-Elcock has never severed her relations with Guyana. She remains in touch by being an overseas member of the Guyana Music Teachers Association. Although she no longer tutors private students, she continues to encourage her grandchildren and great- grandchildren.
Joyce Aaron-Elcock has been a shining light and an inspiration in Guyana's cultural life. Music has been her joy, and with it she has brought joy to countless others in Guyana and the United States. Through her students, she has spread music around the world.
Sources
Argosy Christmas Tide (1947). 'Gained LRSM Diploma in 1947.'
Guyana Music Teachers Association. 50th Anniversary Souvenir Brochure, 1998.
Telephone interview: Charles Knights (New Jersey) and Vibert Cambridge (Athens, OH), February 2005.
Telephone interview with Joyce Elcock (Maryland) and Vibert Cambridge (Athens, OH), February 23, 2005
Telephone interview: John Fredericks (New York) and Vibert Cambridge (Athens, OH) March 19, 2005.
Interview with Patricia Cambridge, March 22, 2005
Telephone interview: Ulric Langford (New York) and Vibert Cambridge (Athens, OH), March 29, 2005.
Telephone interview with Joyce Aaron-Elcock (Maryland) and Vibert Cambridge (Athens, OH), April 5, 2005.
Telephone interview with Bertley Wharton (Wilmington, Delaware) and Vibert Cambridge (Athens, OH), April 5, 2005