By Norm Harris
This past Father’s Day the Bayside Historical Society welcomed the community to the Grand Ballroom of the Officer’s club at Fort Totten for an afternoon performance of exquisitely executed piano arrangements performed by Joseph Joubert.
The Bayside resident, internationally acclaimed, award-winning pianist, conductor, arranger and musical director dressed in the grand style of a classical concert hall pianist and presented his program of 17 selections in two parts.
The program was presented in the large Victorian-style ballroom filled with Queens residents, visitors from other locales, and many of his family members including his wife Renay Joubert, an acclaimed metso suprano; one of his brothers, a Baptist minister; and his parents, both ministers of the Community Baptist Church of Bayside.
Joubert’s performance was nothing less than breathtaking in its depth and range, as he presented selections by Chopin, George Gershwin, Duke Ellington and a variety of religious “songs of inspiration” which he had arraigned, including “Great is Thy Faithfulness” and “I Need Thee Every Hour.”
One member of the audience summed it up beautifully after Joubert graciously accepted his long standing ovation, when she said that the choir members of his church (the one that his mother and father pastor to), say that “If you don’t have a voice to sing, then Joseph can make you sing.”
There aren’t enough superlatives to describe the afternoon concert presented by Joubert, except to say that I, along with all of the others in attendance, may never again see, hear or experience a piano concert so filled with joy, sheer talent and originality in our lifetime. I’m glad I was asked to attend.
