SAN­DRA L BLOOD

T&T-born Michael George, 70, was re­cent­ly ho­n­oured with a Life­time Achieve­ment Award at the Mac/Ban Arts US Pres­i­dent’s Awards and Gala Lun­cheon, held at the Sher­a­ton Pen­ta­gon City Ho­tel in Ar­ling­ton, Vir­ginia.

He was award­ed for his con­tri­bu­tion to “high­light­ing and show­cas­ing Steel­pan cul­ture on the USA South East­ern Seaboard.” The Pres­i­den­tial Vol­un­teer Ser­vice Award (PVSA) is the high­est ho­n­our, and Dr De­von Ban­nis­ter and Dr Pa­tri­cia Mc­Dougall pre­sent­ed it.

George al­so re­ceived a cer­tifi­cate, an of­fi­cial pin and a con­grat­u­la­to­ry let­ter.

“Through play­ing steel­pan, I was able to lead a re­spect­ful life, mar­ry a beau­ti­ful la­dy, raise my chil­dren, keep my fam­i­ly to­geth­er, put food on the ta­ble, and af­ford my chil­dren good school­ing un­til grad­u­at­ing from De­vry and Howard Uni­ver­si­ties, re­spec­tive­ly,” he said

George is a San Juan Sec­ondary alum­ni and a for­mer mem­ber of the Ebonites, Star­lift and Har­monites steel­bands. He mi­grat­ed to the Unit­ed States im­me­di­ate­ly af­ter per­form­ing with Har­monites in 1974 when they won the Na­tion­al Panora­ma ti­tle with Lord Kitch­en­er’s Jeri­cho.

He taught his chil­dren, son Dale and daugh­ters Tami­ka and Taki­er to play the steel­pan. Taki­er per­forms with him oc­ca­sion­al­ly.

George ad­mit­ted that some of his fel­low Trin­bag­o­ni­ans don’t un­der­stand his vi­sion of be­ing a one-man steel­band. As a re­sult, he was sub­ject­ed to on­line bul­ly­ing that forced him to take down his so­cial me­dia page.

“But my trust in God turned my cries of pain in­to cries of joy,” he said

George has cre­at­ed his one-man steel­band, com­pris­ing dou­ble sec­onds, cow­bell, cym­bals, drums, and har­mon­i­ca, out of a years-long quest to cre­ate a unique sound sys­tem.

He said one of his most mem­o­rable per­for­mances was in 2018, when Guyana’s then-am­bas­sador Dr Shamir Al­ly in­vit­ed him to Kuwait to per­form.

“I lit­er­al­ly got the red car­pet treat­ment; was ac­tu­al­ly treat­ed like a king, and that’s when Tri­nis be­gan to show ap­pre­ci­a­tion,” he said

Ac­com­pa­nied by his son Dale, who is al­so his man­ag­er, George per­formed at the Ab­dul­Hus­sein Ab­dulRed­ha The­atre in Salmiya, Kuwait, be­fore an au­di­ence of princes, princess­es and oth­er high-pro­file of­fi­cials. His seg­ment One Man Steel­band Caribbean Night with Michael George, was de­scribed as a huge hit.

Voop Me­dia Kuwait re­port­ed: “…In ad­di­tion to just one man play­ing sev­er­al in­stru­ments which re­places mu­sic pro­duced by a whole band, the main in­stru­ment which Mr Michael plays is known as the steel­pan . . . a tra­di­tion­al in­stru­ment na­tive to Trinidad and To­ba­go.”

Apart from a year­ly com­mit­ment at Nema­col­in Re­sort in Penn­syl­va­nia and var­i­ous pri­vate events, George per­forms dai­ly on King Street in Alexan­dria, Vir­ginia.

Among those con­grat­u­lat­ing George on his award was Pan Trin­ba­go Pres­i­dent Bev­er­ly Ram­sey-Moore who said her vi­sion has al­ways been for the steel­pan to gain glob­al recog­ni­tion.

She com­mend­ed George for his per­for­mances “blend­ing the sounds of all the in­stru­ments to cre­ate a unique sound.”