Colleagues of renowned musicologist and educator Dr Olive Lewin are remembering the Jamaican icon following her passing at the University Hospital of the West Indies on Wednesday.

Choir director Noel Dexter described Lewin as a great Jamaican musician who contributed greatly to spreading the country’s music at home and abroad.”She was one of the greatest arrangers of Jamaican folk music and we all benefit from her pioneering work,” Dexter said. “She brought respectability to the music with the way in which the Jamaican Folk Singers presented themselves… taking the music from the fields to the stage,” he added.

Marjorie Whylie, former musical director of the National Dance Theatre Company, reflected on Lewin’s early work.

Marjorie Whylie, former musical director of the National Dance Theatre Company, reflected on Lewin’s early work.

“I was always interested in folk music and as a result I was one of the early volunteers who worked with her at the School of Music to transcribe material once she had returned from the field doing research. Dr Lewin worked with the Social Development Commission, in communities across the island, prisons and the Bellevue Hospital… she understood te use of music in development and rehabilitation,” Whylie told Splash.According to reports, hours before her passing, Lewin requested that musician Peter Ashbourne visit her and play the violin for her. Ashbourne’s wife, musician Rosina Christina Moder took to social media and paid tribute to Lewin.

On her Facebook page Moder wrote: “I am grateful for the privilege to have sung Fi Mi Love Have Lion Heart to the one who taught me this true Jamaican love song — Dr Olive Lewin — some minutes before her peaceful transition.”

Actress and broadcaster Fae Ellington also used Facebook to salute Lewin.

“The late Dr Olive Lewin left an indelible mark on my life. Perhaps she is best captured by this quote, her quote: ‘You don’t practise ’til you get it right, You practise ’til you can’t get it wrong’. Founder of the Jamaican Folk Singers, musicologist, memory bank pioneer, violinist, soprano and so much more. Rest in Peace,” wrote Ellington.

For journalist and playwright Barbara Gloudon Lewin represents the last of an era dedicated to unearthing the stories behind the music of the people.