Steelpan & Choral Treats at Calvary Cathedral of Praise

New York, USA - It is a Friday evening in early December in the Kensington part of Brooklyn - actually the center of Brooklyn, and the steelpan is again about to take front and center at the beautiful Calvary Cathedral of Praise.  This show is billed as ‘Total Praise’ - Steel Orchestra and Choral Concert featuring Calvary Steel Orchestra, CrossFire Steel Orchestra and Women In Steel.

If you have never been to the Calvary Cathedral of Praise it is one of the more modern and stunning houses of worship in New York.  In addition to its striking appearance and layout, it boasts great acoustics for live performances and is equipped with competent in-house media facilities.

The Calvary Cathedral of Praise (CCOPNY) has had a long association with the steelpan instrument.  Indeed, its own Calvary Cathedral of Praise Steel Orchestra aka Calvary Steelband has been on the scene since 1972.  With a repertoire of traditional hymns and contemporary gospel performed in various styles, including calypso, soca, R&B and more, audiences in the wider USA, and as far a field as the United Kingdom and Africa - have been ministered to by the steel orchestra.

The show opened up with the latest incarnation of the CCOPNY Steel Orchestra, well received by the audience.  These young players led by arranger Khuent Rose have come together for only the last six months.  The orchestra demonstrated Calvary Cathedral of Praise's commitment to not only the steelpan instrument, but to the power of music in general.  With the talented Rose at the helm one can look for the orchestra to make significant inroads into their musical development.

Martin Douglas, director of CrossFire Steel Orchestra, gave a short but insightful history about the early development of the steelpan instrument to the diversified audience.  Of particular note, Mr. Douglas, who is from the birthplace of the steelpan instrument, Trinidad and Tobago, mentioned how the early pan tuners would wait for the tones from the chiming of a clock at a well-known educational institution in Trinidad - the Queen's Royal College (QRC) - every 15 minutes to tune their instruments.  Hence, the birth of tuning to a standard tone scenario.

Also on the program was a guest appearance by  Ms. Gail Blanche-Gill with veteran panist Patrick Davis.  Simply a marvelous voice; in spite of her laryngitis, this vocalist delivered a wonderful performance, setting the show on its heels with her rendition of Ave Maria.  If this is how she sounded with laryngitis, one can but imagine her performance at full voice!

Next up was CrossFire Steel Orchestra, who introduced their set with a solo by musical director Khuent Rose.  A rousing  rendition, this talented and gifted musician set the pace, then joined CrossFire as the group went through a varied array of seasonal tunes stamped with Rose's signature intricacy and colors.

CrossFire is definitely on the upward track, and may have found their niche in stage side performances - and can become a force to be reckoned with.  Every time they take the stage they are improved, with an expanding repertoire and markedly better musicianship.  The group totally engaged the audience, in both sets for the evening, even bringing concert goers to their feet when combined with the Calvary Chorale on the selection Total Praise, the theme for the entire show.

Also present at the show was Women In Steel (WIS), a New York original which continues to make their voice heard and presence felt, still presenting a fascinating phenomenon to several in the audience.  WIS performed a few seasonal pieces with Collins Jackman as arranger and musical director, and who - as did Rose with Crossfire - performed with the band.   Like Calvary and CrossFire Steel Orchestras, WIS also made a second appearance after a twenty-five minute intermission.

Although opening up just around twenty minutes after the scheduled start time, the show was tight and appeared to be well time-managed and flowing.  Kudos to the organizers who presented the audience with insightful narratives and history about all the performers.  In addition, the visual projections were quite timely and added to the audience overall experience.  Several notables were on hand for the evening's performances, including former CCOPNY Steel Orchestra director Stephen Reid, Mrs. Jacqueline Mannette, wife of renowned pan legend Ellie Mannette and Yolanda Lezama-Clarke, president of the West Indian America Day Carnival Association (WIADCA).

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