A year on from the for­mal in­ter­na­tion­al recog­ni­tion of this coun­try’s na­tion­al in­stru­ment, World Steel­pan Day, which will be ob­served to­mor­row, is not on­ly an oc­ca­sion for cel­e­bra­tion but an op­por­tu­ni­ty to pon­der the role it can play in T&T’s ad­vance­ment and fu­ture pros­per­i­ty.

Af­ter years of pin­ning the coun­try’s hopes and prospects on the black gold ex­port­ed in bar­rels, it is time to fo­cus on the in­stru­ment fash­ioned from those met­al con­tain­ers and the mu­si­cal en­er­gy it has been gen­er­at­ing for this na­tion over the past nine decades.

Fol­low­ing in the cre­ative foot­steps of those steel­pan pi­o­neers who first ex­ploit­ed the po­ten­tial of dis­card­ed oil bar­rels, aca­d­e­mics, in­no­va­tors and mu­sic vir­tu­osos must be giv­en the space and sup­port to dri­ve the on­go­ing de­vel­op­ment of the in­stru­ment.

No as­pect of this glo­ri­ous in­stru­ment or the mu­sic in­dus­try it has gen­er­at­ed should be tak­en for grant­ed. Gov­ern­ment, cor­po­rate T&T and the nu­mer­ous com­mu­ni­ties that have evolved around the in­stru­ment need to un­der­stand their roles in shap­ing the na­tion’s bright steel­pan fu­ture.

The his­toric adop­tion by the Unit­ed Na­tions’ Gen­er­al As­sem­bly, of a res­o­lu­tion mak­ing Au­gust 11 World Steel­pan Day, paved the path for a range of sus­tain­able, rev­enue gen­er­at­ing, com­mu­ni­ty build­ing, uni­fy­ing ac­tiv­i­ties with T&T at the epi­cen­tre.

It is not enough to just tout it as the on­ly new in­stru­ment in­vent­ed in the 20th cen­tu­ry.

In the 1930s and 40s, steel­pan pi­o­neers spear­head­ed the in­stru­ment’s evo­lu­tion from sin­gle to mul­ti­ple units. They worked con­stant­ly, ex­per­i­ment­ing with meth­ods and ma­te­ri­als to im­prove the sound qual­i­ty and range. They bat­tled stig­ma and dis­crim­i­na­tion to earn a place of na­tion­al promi­nence and pride for the in­stru­ment.

There is a need for many more piv­otal mo­ments in the in­stru­ment’s de­vel­op­ment, a con­stant pur­suit of ad­vance­ments in its con­struc­tion and the way it is played.

Pos­si­bil­i­ties for fu­ture de­vel­op­ment are al­most un­lim­it­ed thanks to the lat­est ad­vance­ments in ma­te­ri­als, man­u­fac­tur­ing tech­niques, and tech­nol­o­gy.

Its sound is eas­i­ly recog­nised and it is world renowned for its ver­sa­til­i­ty and abil­i­ty to cross over sev­er­al mu­si­cal gen­res — jazz, clas­si­cal, pop, so­ca, reg­gae and even rock mu­sic. The steel­pan has fea­tured in hit songs from Prince’s New Po­si­tion to Spy­ro Gy­ra’s Morn­ing Dance.

Steel or­ches­tras have per­formed in con­cert halls across the globe and just a few months ago, the in­stru­ment was played on Chi­na’s icon­ic Great Wall, prov­ing that it tru­ly is T&T’s mu­si­cal gift to the world.

Al­though not heard at the 2024 Paris Olympics, cur­rent­ly in its fi­nal stages, this coun­try’s unique steel­pan ver­sion of the Na­tion­al An­them has been heard at ma­jor sport­ing events, in­spir­ing pa­tri­o­tism and joy when­ev­er it is played.

But too of­ten, the val­ue of the in­stru­ment is un­der­es­ti­mat­ed in the place of its birth.

There is no oth­er way to ex­plain why it took 32 years af­ter the de­c­la­ra­tion of the steel­pan as the na­tion­al in­stru­ment, for Par­lia­ment to de­bate and unan­i­mous­ly pass the bill to make that a re­al­i­ty.

That move, fi­nal­ly made last month, is a crit­i­cal step in the fur­ther growth and de­vel­op­ment of the steel­pan in­dus­try.

An­oth­er source of con­cern is the length of time it is tak­ing to con­struct the per­ma­nent head­quar­ters of Pan Trin­ba­go — an­oth­er decades-old ef­fort which is steeped in con­tro­ver­sy.

Still, there is plen­ty to cel­e­brate to­mor­row be­cause the steel­pan is one of T&T’s most price­less as­sets.