Web Posted - Friday April 23, 2010
The Daily Observer

St. John’s, ANTIGUA - Panache is preparing to open its very own school of pan, and its upcoming Mother’s Day concert is the major fund-raising initiative planned to assist with this big step. This comes on the heels of the third birthday celebrations of the country’s youngest steel orchestra.

Web Posted - Thursday April 22, 2010
Gazette.net

Maryland, USA -  Oakland’s Elementary Principal Audrey Briscoe still gets choked up when she remembers the impact a steel drum club had at an elementary school she taught at 20 years ago. Briscoe said she had introduced the club as an outlet for students who had trouble paying attention in class or other behavioral problems.

"I said, ‘You know what, let's channel their energies in a different direction,'" she said.

The drums made a noticeable difference, Briscoe said, and the students who had never succeeded academically soon formed a new self-confidence that transferred over to better performance on their school work.
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Web Posted - Wednesday April 21, 2010
ShelbyStar.com

North Carolina, USA -  For their concert Friday, April 23 chorus students at Shelby High School have learned to sing in five languages: English, Latin, Italian, Spanish and African.

The students will be joined on stage by the Shelby High School Percussion Ensemble and the Pan Jive Steel Drum band.

Choral Director Traci Aderholdt wanted to bring a steel drum band to Shelby after attending a performance of the American Choral Directors Association Regional Honor Choir in Florida in 2000.
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Web Posted - Wednesday April 21, 2010
Ohio.com

Ohio, USA -  If you can hear the rhythm of the steel drum band and smell the exotic spices, you could be on a fabulous Caribbean vacation, or you could be in the Wooster kitchen of Alicia Holford.

The University of Akron graduate and GoJo Industries employee has established herself as a local expert on the food of her home country, Trinidad.

Holford and her friends, fellow Trinidad natives, get together often to laugh and cook and enjoy their native foods. Once each year, however, their work has a purpose: They put together a buffet of authentic Trinidadian food for the University of Akron Steel Drum Band.
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Web Posted - Tuesday April 20, 2010
When Steel Talks

Web Posted - Tuesday April 20, 2010
When Steel Talks

Web Posted - Tuesday April 20, 2010
Miami Herald

Florida, USA - From a small trailer stationed behind the fine arts building at Florida Memorial University, the tinkling mélange of melodious steel pans spills outside into surrounding corridors and parking lots.

Inside, pounding steel with mallets, the ensemble creates all genres of music: classical, Calypso, R&B, jazz -- the possibilities abound.

“People feel you can only play cruise ship music with a steel pan; the instrument has such a wide range,” said Dawn Batson, director of the Florida Memorial University steel band program.

Web Posted - Monday April 19, 2010
When Steel Talks

Web Posted - Friday April 16, 2010
When Steel Talks

New York, USA -  The UWI (University of the West Indies) Arts Chorale and the UWI Steel Ensemble from Trinidad appeared in concert as part of their international tour, at the Founders Hall at St. Francis College - located in downtown Brooklyn, New York.  Their performance was simply marvelous.

The concert and tour are part of the tenth year anniversary celebrations of the musical  organizations’ founding.... Ten years later, they celebrate this milestone with their second international Concert tour with a trip to St. Francis College.
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Web Posted - Friday April 16, 2010
Trinidad Guardian

Trinidad, W.I. -  It is the goal of almost every junior steelpan orchestra to come out of the “little league” and make it big on the instrument’s grandest Carnival stage with a performance that would impress all pan lovers. For the members of the southern-based Golden Hands Steel Orchestra, this dream became a reality during the recently concluded Carnival season, when it placed second in the small bands category of the panorama finals. Coming off the junior stage, the orchestra’s debut at the senior level definitely paid off, as its test piece Dingolay, which was arranged by band member Vanessa Headley, was a true reflection of the band’s dedication and hard work.  
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Web Posted - Friday April 16, 2010
When Steel Talks

Trinidad & Tobago, W.I.-  Atlanta-based panist Don Clarke believes that, sad to say, pan in his native Trinidad and Tobago “is neither going nor coming.” Clarke was being interviewed by Pan Diaspora Visionary, Hollis Clifton on WACK radio 90.1 FM.

Clarke shares some of his experiences of his journey through the years with the steelpan art form at home and abroad. Additionally, he articulates his own viewpoints as to what he perceives as a stagnation regarding the instrument in the country of its birth, while people in countries around the world appear keen to learn more about this unique instrument.
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Web Posted - Thursday April 15, 2010
Athens Banner-Herald

Georgia, USA - Not much about Barrow County evokes feelings of a tropical breeze or a white-sand beach, but somehow the spirit of the islands has taken root.

The Kennedy Elementary School Dragons of Steel steel drum ensemble has been bringing the sounds of Caribbean to town for five years now. As another school year and performance season draws to a close, the 20-student band is busy getting ready for its biggest show of the year - playing among about a dozen adult steel drum bands at the Goombay Gulf Coast Festival in Pensacola, Fla.
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Web Posted -  Thursday April 15, 2010
The Weston Mercury

Portishead, U.K. - Youngsters from Portishead Primary School completed a project on the Caribbean by experiencing some of the culture.

A steel band visited the school, playing to pupils before inviting them to take part in a drumming workshop.
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Web Posted - Wednesday April 14, 2010
When Steel Talks

New York, USA -  History was made this April 12 as South Africa’s St Stithians College Marimba Band traveled over 7,000 miles, performing at the prestigious Philippa Schuyler Middle School for the Gifted and Talented located in Brooklyn, New York. The occasion was a joint concert with the Philippa Schuyler Major Steelpan Ensemble.

The two-week tour labeled “2010 USA Tour,” would take the St Stithians College Marimba Band all-male group made up of twenty-four youth, through Washington DC, Boston and New York before they headed back to their home of Johannesburg, South Africa.
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Web Posted - Wednesday April 14, 2010
When Steel Talks

Trinidad & Tobago - A new champion is anticipated in this year’s Pan Down Memory Lane competition in Trinidad and Tobago.  Newcomer to the competition, ‘We Ting,’ topped the Preliminary round with 265 points. Just seven months in existence, the Woodbrook-based Single Pan Band led by Vincent Benjamin vowed the judges with their presentation of Edwin Pouchet’s arrangement of The Platters ‘Only You.’

Last year’s joint winners, the then-Angostura Woodbrook Playboyz now Carib Woodbrook Playboyz, amassed 252 points while Pan Family will compete in the Conventional Bands category.
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Web Posted - Wednesday April 14, 2010
When Steel Talks

New York, USA -  The National Alliance of Steel bands announces its organizational kickoff reception, to be held at St. Gregory’s School, 991 St. John’s Place (corner of Brooklyn Avenue), on Sunday, May 9, 2010, starting at 6 p.m.

The National Alliance of Steel bands is a membership organization representing 20 community-based steel orchestras located in New York, Boston and Washington, DC.
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Web Posted - Tuesday April 13, 2010
Jamaica Observer

Jamaica, W.I. - ....The students of Dinthill, through their love for music, were able to play and have controlled dance movements while playing their instruments in the school's steel pan band. Vice-Principal Audrey Sinclair, told TEENage that the school had only received the steel pans in January of this year. Since then, their practice sessions last an entire day, twice a week. They also recieve help from the well-known steel pan band Silver Bird.

They have been able to play a number of songs, which the TEENage team was privileged to listen to. Hits like Michael Jackson's Billie Jean, Beat It and Thriller really impressed the team, but it was only when the band began to play the latest hits of 2010 by dancehall artistes Vybz Kartel, Black Ryno, Konshens and Lisa Hyper, that the team was truly awed by the students' musical skills which they have acquired from only two months of practice.
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Web Posted - Tuesday April 13, 2010
Trinidad Guardian

Trinidad, W.I. -  The adage “one can never be too old to learn” certainly applied on a hot, sunny evening last month at the Bishop Anstey High School’s auditorium, on Keate Street, Port-of-Spain. What can only be described as an evening of cultural brilliance was a festival project presentation—Journey—by Bachelor of Arts student Akua Leith. Leith, who is currently pursuing his Pan Major in Musical Arts, was given as his final year project the task of educating and training a steelband made up only of members over the age of 40.

As a requirement, the members were to have no prior musical experience or knowledge of the national instrument. The presentation started with the mature band—HighLights—showing off what its musicians learned, from warm-ups to technical exercises.
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Web Posted - Monday April 12, 2010
La Voix du Nord

France -  Les ados roncquois ont été conviés à une initiative originale: un stage de fabrication et d'initiation de steelpan pendant la semaine du 12 au 16 avril.

Au préalable, deux intervenants, Cédric et Yann, ont présenté leur instrument vendredi dernier à l'espace Jean-Albert Bricout.

Le pan est fait à partir de fûts en métal de 216 litres utilisés par l'industrie pétrolière pour stocker et transporter de l'essence ou de l'huile. Ils sont sectionnés et la face inférieure de ces bidons est emboutie puis martelée pour y réaliser un ensemble de facettes se comportant chacune comme une cloche. Les différentes facettes sont accordées sur une gamme tempérée, explique les animateurs.
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