Eleven years ago the Trinidad and To­ba­go Steel­band and Jazz Fes­ti­val (TTSJF) in­au­gu­rat­ed a day­time mu­sic work­shops se­ries as an ed­u­ca­tion­al com­ple­ment to its renowned evening con­cert pro­gramme show­cas­ing the finest in jazz and steel­band mu­sic.The First Cit­i­zens De­vel­op­men­tal Work­shops for Young Mu­si­cians, an an­nu­al free mu­si­cal in­struc­tion se­ries, pro­vides in­valu­able op­por­tu­ni­ties for T&T's as­pir­ing tal­ent to study pro­fes­sion­al mu­si­cians' fine­ly-honed tech­niques culled from years of prac­ti­cal ex­pe­ri­ence.Each year, more than 450 hope­ful mu­si­cians par­tic­i­pate in these work­shops, which are open to all stu­dents. Each at­tendee will re­ceive a per­son­alised cer­tifi­cate of par­tic­i­pa­tion.

Be­cause of the over­whelm­ing­ly pos­i­tive re­sponse to the 2012 work­shops, led by trum­peter Char­lie Sepul­ve­da, pro­fes­sor in Latin Jazz stan­dards and Afro-Cuban mu­sic at Puer­to Ri­co's Con­ser­va­to­ry of Mu­sic in San Juan, the Latin Gram­my nom­i­nee will re­turn this year as the lead fa­cil­i­ta­tor."I have played all kinds of mu­sic as a (lead) mu­si­cian and a side­man, so I can tell stu­dents about my ex­pe­ri­ences. The stu­dents will get im­pro­vi­sa­tion lessons and learn how to play in en­sem­bles as they per­form my songs and songs by Trinida­di­an mu­si­cians," says Sepul­ve­da.

As­sist­ing Sepul­ve­da, as he did last year, is his long­stand­ing bassist Gabriel Ro­driquez, lec­tur­er at the Puer­to Ri­co Con­ser­va­to­ry of Mu­sic. Ro­driquez has writ­ten ed­u­ca­tion­al tips columns for the Cana­di­an mag­a­zine Glob­al Bass and Ar­genti­na's 44Mgz mag­a­zine and has au­thored a man­u­al for the de­vel­op­ment of har­mo­ny and tech­nique.Cana­da's Jeff Gunn, cre­ator of Hid­den Sounds: Dis­cov­er Your Own Gui­tar Method video se­ries and mu­si­cal di­rec­tor for African hip-hop star/ac­tivist Em­manuel Jal, will al­so as­sist in the work­shops, as will three of T&T's most ac­com­plished mu­si­cians. Natasha Joseph, award-win­ning pan­nist and drill­mas­ter of Panora­ma 2013 cham­pi­on Phase II Pan Groove; vet­er­an mul­ti-in­stru­men­tal­ist/band­leader Michael "Ming" Low Chew Tung, leader of Caribbean-jazz group �lan par­le; and, singer/song­writer/mu­si­cian and pro­duc­er Kei­th­son-jon Cruik­shank will do an­oth­er call of du­ty. Joseph, Low Chew Tung and Cruik­shank as­sist­ed Sepul­ve­da and Ro­driquez in 2012 while Gunn will be vis­it­ing Trinidad for the first time.

Past work­shop fa­cil­i­ta­tors in­clude vet­er­an drum­mer Louis Hayes of the Can­non­ball Adder­ley Lega­cy Band; Delaware (USA) vi­bra­phon­ist Joe Baione; key­boardist Je­re­my Led­bet­ter; and, Cuban-born trum­peter Alex­is Bar�, both of the Toron­to-based Caribbean Latin-jazz col­lec­tive Cane­Fire. Al­so, T&T-born, world renowned bassist David "Hap­py" Williams, steel­pan vir­tu­oso Robert Greenidge and pi­anist Orville Wright, for­mer chair­man, En­sem­ble De­part­ment, Berklee Col­lege of Mu­sic, have all con­tributed."Each lead fa­cil­i­ta­tor is an in­ter­na­tion­al per­former and teacher who brings a dif­fer­ent ex­pres­sive style and de­vel­op­ment fo­cus to the work­shops," ex­plains Mor­timer Bap­tiste, fes­ti­val ex­ec­u­tive and pro­duc­er of the work­shops.Young mu­si­cians in­ter­est­ed in par­tic­i­pat­ing are en­cour­aged reg­is­ter on­line at: http://www.steel­pan­jaz­zfes­ti­val.com/events/work­shops.html­For more in­fo con­tact 378 4837 or 683 8288 or e-mail mort­bap­tiste@gmail.com

About the Work­shops

The First Cit­i­zens De­vel­op­men­tal Work­shops for Young Mu­si­cians will be held on Oc­to­ber 22-26 through­out Trinidad in the fol­low­ing lo­ca­tions: Oc­to­ber 22, Oa­sis Ter­race, San Fer­nan­do; Oc­to­ber 23, Mal­abar North Com­mu­ni­ty Fa­cil­i­ty, Ari­ma; Oc­to­ber 24, Bon Air West Com­mu­ni­ty Fa­cil­i­ty Arou­ca; Oc­to­ber 25, Li­ons' Cul­tur­al Cen­tre, Port-of-Spain. On Oc­to­ber 26, the se­ries cul­mi­nates in a free, in­vi­ta­tion-on­ly Youth in Mu­sic Con­cert fea­tur­ing stu­dent en­sem­bles per­form­ing with their in­struc­tors, at Queen's Hall, St Ann's.