The Na­tion­al Sin­fo­nia Or­ches­tra (NSO) will open its sev­enth sea­son of per­for­mances with Liam Teague, steel­pan soloist. The up­com­ing con­cert, con­duct­ed by mu­sic di­rec­tor Jes­sel Mur­ray, will be un­der the pa­tron­age of Pres­i­dent George Maxwell Richards, and will be held at 6 pm on Au­gust 15 at Queen's Hall. The pro­duc­tion is in col­lab­o­ra­tion with mem­bers of the Na­tion­al Steel Sym­pho­ny Or­ches­tra (play­ing the G pans), and will fea­ture a mix­ture of tra­di­tion­al favourites and new pieces. Teague is known the world over as one of the pre­mier per­form­ers on steel­pan.

Hailed as the pa­gani­ni of the steel­pan, he cur­rent­ly serves as the head of Steel­pan Stud­ies and is as­so­ciate pro­fes­sor of Mu­sic at North­ern Illi­nois Uni­ver­si­ty, USA. He is par­tic­u­lar­ly well not­ed for his cham­pi­oning of tra­di­tion­al mu­sic for the steel­pan as well as for new­er works. Through its six sea­sons of quar­ter­ly con­certs, the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies (UWI) af­fil­i­at­ed NSO, con­duct­ed by Mur­ray, has be­come a hall­mark on the lo­cal mu­sic scene. In De­cem­ber, 2009, the or­ches­tra, with the UWI Arts Chorale, pre­sent­ed Trinidad's first full or­ches­tral per­for­mance of Bern­stein's Chich­ester Psalms, and in Feb­ru­ary part­nered with the same group to raise $28,000 for the vic­tims of the Hait­ian earth­quake. Most re­cent­ly, the or­ches­tra pro­vid­ed the mu­sic for Must Come See Pro­duc­tions' Ai­da at Queen's Hall.

For more in­for­ma­tion, please call 683-6405.