DeKalb, Illinois, USA - At 5:02 EST (Eastern Standard Time) NIU (Northern Illinois University) Steelband took the stage to loud applause. Dressed in NIU’s official colors red and black, the NIU steelpan music program is now clearly a part of the NIU music landscape. Streaming its Fall concerts live over the internet with quality video and audio has become an expected norm.
NIU Steelband performing at its Fall 2016 Concert
The world got to watch NIU’s latest crop of developing and emerging panists. Many, who will go on to do phenomenal things in relationship to the steelpan instrument, if we are to use the recent past as our guide. The list now is quite long of outstanding musicians (some whose exceptional talents were already known), who have been nurtured, on their way to receiving their advanced degrees from the institution. Just to name a few - names like Seion Gomez, Mia Gormandy, Khan Cordice, Yuki Nakano, Yuko Asada, Josanne Francis, Barry Mannette, Akua Leith, and of course Liam Teague himself - their teacher and mentor - all are known throughout the steelpan community globally. Moreover, a certain level of musical excellence is expected and routinely delivered.
NIU Steelband
This fall concert again allowed the orchestra to demonstrate its mastering of multiple genres of music and a special understanding of the voicing of the instruments in the steelpan family. The NIU sound is fully established partially through the arrangements of Liam Teague, and the instruments’ manufacture and tuning by the orchestra’s co-founder Clifford Alexsis, the resident tuner. From the music of Pit Bull to the rebirth of the legendary Desperadoes’ winning arrangement of “Obeah Wedding,” to their presentation of Earth Wind and Fire’s “Let’s Groove” - the world got a good picture of all that makes the NIU steelband music program and, by extension, its orchestra, special.
Look for their next major broadcast performance next Spring.
