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Pan in the Park as NYU Steel plays in NY’s Washington Square Park

The NYU Steel Drum Ensemble known as "NYU Steel" performing at Washington Square Park
The NYU Steel Drum Ensemble known as “NYU Steel” performing at Washington Square Park


In Pictures

New York, USA - Not even the slightly grey skies overhead could maintain its dour countenance as NYU Steel from New York University kept up a determined music pulse and rhythm in the rather cool afternoon.  Eventually, even those very skies cracked a tad to finally let the rays of the sun come peeking through, the latter perhaps in defiant and happy response to the beckoning steelband sounds of the NYU Steel Ensemble.
 

NYU Steel performs in Washington Square Park
NYU Steel performs in Washington Square Park

As people wandered through the famed Washington Park Square in New York’s Greenwich Village - some of them with prized pooches in tow - several stopped to take in the steelband sounds which ranged from contemporary works, to familiar Christian strains (Amazing Grace), to kaiso standards frequently adapted to the steel orchestra (The Hammer).  The repertoire also included Conscious Chutney, J’Ouvert Barrio, Exit Music (For a Film), Afro Pan, Shaw Park, Forever Soca, and Sideways.  As expected, a plethora of digital products - from smart phones to cameras to camcorders - immediately popped out as several chose to capture imagery, audio and video of the skillful music works presented by NYU Steel.


Washington Square Park is a US landmark steeped in significance as a public space where people have gathered throughout the years, to discuss and address matters of urgency impacting society; it is also a hub of cultural activity.  It was therefore, a fitting place for showcasing the steelband culture and artform (itself in part a product of social struggle and cultural change in its home of Trinidad & Tobago) - represented by the New York University Steel Ensemble as they performed music arrangements by Joshua Quillen and others on pan.
 

NYU's Jonathan Haas with NYU Steel
NYU’s Jonathan Haas (in shades) with NYU Steel

The players are students in the NYU Steinhardt Percussion Program directed by Professor Jonathan Haas; the band itself is directed by Quillen who has been to Trinidad and performed with Phase II Pan Groove.  Haas has been at NYU for seven years, during which time he crafted the Percussion Program with a unique caveat - all students in the program have not only to study and play steelpan, but must also have command of the various voices of instruments in the steelpan family as currently utilized in the NYU Steel Drum component of the percussion program.  It was a mini-ensemble, as Haas put it, which played in the park, but the full contingent will take the stage in their annual concert next evening at the Frederick Loewe Theatre.  Jacqueline Russo, Sean Statser, Dani Fortner, Becky Reid, Jeffrey Eng, Jeremy Lowe, Jim Woolf, Frank Tyl, Andy McBeath, Matthew Lau and Alex Reynolds were the students on hand for the afternoon performance.
 

Farley J. Joseph and Jamie Pittle
Farley J. Joseph and Jamie Pittle

Along with Professor Haas, NYU students Farley J. Joseph and Jamie Pittle (naturally part of the Percussion program) who were happily tasked with managing both the park and concert performance productions, were also present.  They answered questions and provided information about NYU Steel along with flyers, while encouraging everyone to attend the free Wednesday evening concert, open to the public.  And even as the mini-ensemble was enticing onlookers to join them then, back at NYU tuner Kyle Dunleavy was working away tuning the steelpan instruments in readiness for the concert.

Also on hand to take in the music were some familiar faces on the New York pan scene, including those of Khuent Rose, Navarre Mason and Sparkle Demming.  They made it clear that they did not intend to miss the upcoming concert.

NYU's Jonathan Haas with NYU Steel

The music seldom ever stops in and around Washington Square Park.  Even as WST (When Steel Talks) departed, a lone trumpeter took up the cultural baton, positioned comfortably in his temporary space under the park’s famed arches, deftly playing in seemingly preferred musical solace, and drawing attention from passers-by.

NYU Steel
NYU Steel with Jonathan Haas (in shades)

And on Wednesday evening, the music continues a stone’s throw away from the park as NYU Steel delivers their annual concert beginning 8:00 o’clock at the Frederick Loewe Theatre, 35 West 4th Street in New York.   With a CD release carded for May 2011, expect to experience the works of Philip Glass and much more from the group at the show.  Since NYU Steel’s first concert in 2007 they have been consistent throughout the years; in 2010 they took the audience on a memorable journey from “Glass” to “Boogsie.”

 

In Pictures

Contact NYU Steel:
Jonathan Haas, Director - New York University, 35 West 4th Street, New York, NY. 10012
Phone:  1 (212) 992-9466     Email: jonathan.haas@nyu.edu

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