By Cayman Compass contributor Christopher Tobutt
There was a quiet sense of anticipation inside the Harquail Theatre as members of the Cayman Youth Camerata, CayMusicA‘s student orchestra, took the stage on Saturday 7 Feb. for the second event of the 2026 Cayman Arts Festival.
Cayman Youth Camerata’s string instruments musicians were joined on stage by some of the visiting alumni of the Yehudi Menuhin School – one of the world’s most respected training grounds for young classical musicians. They were conducted by Alina Makhina, who leads the Youth Camerata.
Their opening set moved through some classical favourites: a bright, confident Bach selection, something lyrical in the Schubert tradition and Jacques Offenbach’s ‘Infernal Galop’ (better known as the ‘Can Can’), which drew delighted smiles from the audience. It was an exuberant beginning, the culmination of years of steady work within CayMusicA’s Starlight student afterschool music education programme.
Many of the students had attended workshops with visiting alumni of the Yehudi Menuhin School. That influence showed in their poise, their listening and the way they carried themselves onstage. The Camerata is the pinnacle ensemble of the Starlight programme, and on this night, they played with a confidence that suggested Cayman’s musical future is in very capable hands.
Then the stage shifted. Chairs, stands and instruments were cleared away until only a single black grand piano and one solitary chair remained. Into that stillness stepped Azamat Mukhtaruly, a young Kazakh cellist and former Menuhin School student. Alone, he performed a prelude from Bach’s ‘Cello Suite No. 4’, playing with a kind of inward radiance that held the room in absolute stillness. It was a moment of pure concentration – a reminder of how a single musician, fully committed, can command an entire space.
A change of atmosphere followed as Ashley Wass – internationally acclaimed pianist, educator and former director of the Yehudi Menuhin School – introduced the next work. He spoke warmly about the opportunity to visit Cayman, saying that when the invitation came, he knew he had to put everything else aside. His affection for the island, and for the young musicians he had been coaching, was unmistakable.
He then introduced Ralph Vaughan Williams’ ‘The Lark Ascending’, a piece he described as capturing the soul of the English countryside. His wife, Doriane Gable, a French violinist with a luminous, silvery tone, stepped forward to play the solo. Her high, floating lines seemed to summon the lark itself – delicate, ascending phrases that hovered just beyond reach. The performance was tender, spacious and deeply felt.
For the final set, the stage filled once more, this time with a chamber ensemble of Menuhin alumni: Gable on violin, Jemiah Quick on viola, Kemzel Stamselberg on violin, Mukhtaruly on cello and Wass at the piano. Their interplay was intimate and assured, the kind of music making that comes from deep listening and shared purpose.
For Cayman, the evening was more than a concert. It was a moment of cultural arrival – a reminder that world class artistry can flourish here, and that the island’s young musicians are ready to provide it.
Christopher Tobutt is a freelance journalist who has written for various publications in the Cayman Islands since 2003.
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