By Lakhram Bhagirat
If you have ever met David Dewar and had a conversation with him or even heard him perform, I am sure you could never forget him. He has a presence that is larger than life, a voice that emanates from his core and the uncanny ability to make you forget your issues.
Dewar is not your average 70-year-old; he is full of life and enjoys the simplest things in life. He is one of the most versatile persons in Guyana and could easily switch between engineering and music. It may not seem as much of a feat for everyone but to understand the intricacies of a musical instrument or use your voice to take people to a faraway land is, in my book, one of the greatest accomplishments.
Recently I sat down with Dewar as he was teaching music to a Queen’s College student and his passion for the art was one that filled the room. He could continue a conversation with me while he taught her about the intricacies of reading musical notes. I am a fan of music across genres but as much as I have tried, I cannot read music. And just sitting with Dewar and his student I was able to identify some notes after our conversation.
He explains that music has always been a part of his life and he considers it running through his veins. Dewar is the elder of Lucille and Hilton Dewar’s two children. His mother was a music teacher and always attempted to get him to learn how to play the piano.
“I grew up hearing notes and I was a very bad student and I gave her a very rough time or I would have been fluent. A fluent pianist like my wife,” he tells me.
Dewar attended St Sidwell’s Anglican School and he later went to the Wedgewood Private School. He received his secondary education at Central High School. He then went on to the Government Technical Institute where he studied electrical engineering. He would complete his engineering degree at the University of Guyana and later gained employment at the then Georgetown Sewerage and Water Commission (now Guyana Water Inc (GWI)) where he remained all his working life. He is now the Vice Chairman of the GWI Board of Directors and enjoys serving there.
His achievements, academically, are a lot in the fields of business and engineering but his passion is music. He is forever trying to keep up with the evolution of music but still believes in a firm background in classical music.
“The music never left. It was always there and I always was doing something in the field even when I was deep in studying engineering. I joined the Woodside Choir when I was about 20 years old and now I am 70, so I have been with them for 50 years and it was there that I discovered my instrument. My voice. I was taken under the wings of famous composer/conductor (Billy) Pilgrim.”
Now, Dewar is the Chairman of the Woodside Choir and can still belt his classical tunes. He developed his voice continuously and was an outstanding student while he completed the Grade Eight level singing examination of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM).
Moving back to his family life, Dewar got married to music teacher, Marilyn, some 45 years ago and their marriage bore three children. He said that their family is quite a musical one, with all their children knowing an instrument or two.
“Music was always there. Mrs Dewar (his wife) always taught music throughout the year and there was piano in the house and that is how we got a daughter in law. My youngest boy would put a stool for his wife and so when they were younger and we observed.”
“Even when Mrs Dewar and I got married it was a big thing because she was from a musical family and I was from a musical family. Her mother was a music teacher and the Secretary of the Guyana Music Teachers Association and my mother was a member. It was a very big thing. My mother-in-law is still alive and she is 94 years old and may very well be the oldest member of the Association and now Mrs Dewar is the Secretary having followed in her mother’s footsteps,” he tells me.
Now that he is retired, Dewar spends his time teaching at the music school founded by his wife and also teaches theoretical music at the Success Elementary School. He is also quite active in advising the engineers at the GWI. He said now music has moved from just a hobby to his purpose in life since he has started living on “borrowed time.”
“I feel and Mrs Dewar feels the same way that we are living on borrowed time because the Bible says that your allotted life is 70 years. So we feel that we should help out and we are doing that by teaching music until our borrowed time comes to an end and we are perfectly happy doing that,” Dewar shared.
When I asked him what are his thoughts on how we can develop the local music industry, he said that first our musicians should be trained. He said that classical training is important because they would be better able to read and understand music. He also said that music should become a bigger focus here with it being more widely taught.
“We want more people studying music and more people funding it. We have been doing ABRSM examinations in Guyana for over 100 years and yet we only have like 100 students writing those exams every year. Over in Trinidad, it is far more and we have to strive to have a more musically inclined population. Music is continuous and always there.” (Times Sunday Magazine)
