KRISTY RAM­NAR­INE

kristy.ram­nar­ine@cnc3.co.tt

It’s World Steel­pan Day!

T&T’s na­tion­al in­stru­ment, the on­ly new in­stru­ment in­vent­ed in the 20th-cen­tu­ry, will be cel­e­brat­ed to­day.

The Unit­ed Na­tions adopt­ed the res­o­lu­tion on Ju­ly 24 and de­clared World Steel­pan Day will now be cel­e­brat­ed an­nu­al­ly on Au­gust 11.

Min­is­ter of Tourism, Cul­ture and the Arts, Ran­dall Mitchell, in­tro­duced the draft res­o­lu­tion at the 77th Gen­er­al As­sem­bly sit­ting in New York on Ju­ly 24.
It re­ceived co-spon­sor­ship from 84 mem­ber states of the Gen­er­al As­sem­bly.

It’s a joy­ous day for many in the steel­pan fra­ter­ni­ty, in­clud­ing the tal­ent­ed hands be­hinds the sweet sounds of the pan.

Com­pos­er, arranger and steel­band vir­tu­oso Len Boogsie Sharpe said it is a hap­py oc­ca­sion for pan peo­ple and the world.

“My dream is that in Trinidad and To­ba­go, we put the pan back in the class­room,” Sharpe said.

“Peo­ple love mu­sic, the chil­dren love mu­sic. Let us put it there for them so they can get in­volved and play the na­tion­al in­stru­ment. We need that for the younger peo­ple so they will not be get­ting in­volved in crime. They will have some­thing pos­i­tive to do af­ter school.”

Jo­hann Chucka­ree, who can play any genre of mu­sic on the na­tion­al in­stru­ment, said World Steel­pan Day was long over­due.

“I think that the steel­pan is al­ready recog­nised the world over,” he said.

He added: “It is some­thing that is able to unite so many dif­fer­ent peo­ple from var­i­ous eth­nic and so­cial back­grounds. Just as mu­sic brings peo­ple to­geth­er, steel­pan has a way of bring­ing peo­ple to­geth­er. World Steel­pan Day will al­low us to recog­nise the pi­o­neers be­hind the in­stru­ment and those who con­tin­ue to con­tribute to its de­vel­op­ment.”

An­oth­er of T&T’s pop­u­lar com­pos­er, arranger and pan­nists, Du­vonne Stew­art, post­ed the fol­low­ing on his Face­book Page: “World Steel­pan Day is a beau­ti­ful time to cel­e­brate the gift of mu­sic and to come to­geth­er as a com­mu­ni­ty.”

His post added: “It’s a chance to lis­ten to a va­ri­ety of mu­si­cians, steel­pan tuners, steel­pan mak­ers, arrangers and hear their tal­ents live all around the world. Learn­ing more about the day will help any mu­si­cal en­thu­si­ast to ap­pre­ci­ate all the ben­e­fits of lis­ten­ing to steel­pan mu­sic.

“Steel­pan Mu­sic lovers from around the world will gath­er to at­tend steel­pan fes­ti­vals, par­ties, and events to help cel­e­brate the day and this spe­cif­ic type of mu­sic. Now is the per­fect op­por­tu­ni­ty to take up this mu­si­cal in­stru­ment to start to make mu­sic so one can un­der­stand what all the hype is about.”

World Steel­pan Day high­lights the abil­i­ty of steel­pan to unite peo­ple from all walks of life and draw to­geth­er folks from around the globe.