Ot­to Car­ring­ton

Se­nior Re­porter

Pan Trin­ba­go is mark­ing the sec­ond an­niver­sary of the steel­pan’s des­ig­na­tion as Trinidad and To­ba­go’s Na­tion­al Mu­si­cal In­stru­ment, de­scrib­ing the mile­stone as a cel­e­bra­tion of the coun­try’s cul­tur­al iden­ti­ty and the glob­al lega­cy of the on­ly acoustic mu­si­cal in­stru­ment in­vent­ed in the 20th cen­tu­ry.

In a me­dia re­lease yes­ter­day, the or­gan­i­sa­tion re­flect­ed on the Ju­ly 19, 2024 procla­ma­tion that for­mal­ly recog­nised the steel­pan as the na­tion’s Na­tion­al Mu­si­cal In­stru­ment, say­ing the leg­is­la­tion per­ma­nent­ly en­shrined one of Trinidad and To­ba­go’s most trea­sured cul­tur­al sym­bols.

Pan Trin­ba­go said the des­ig­na­tion ho­n­ours the in­ge­nu­ity and re­silience of gen­er­a­tions of pi­o­neers who trans­formed dis­card­ed oil drums in­to an in­stru­ment now cel­e­brat­ed world­wide.

Pan Trin­ba­go pres­i­dent Bev­er­ley Ram­sey-Moore said the an­niver­sary rep­re­sents more than a sym­bol­ic achieve­ment.

“To­day, we cel­e­brate the recog­ni­tion of our iden­ti­ty, our cre­ativ­i­ty, and our re­silience as a peo­ple. The procla­ma­tion of the Steel­pan as the Na­tion­al Mu­si­cal In­stru­ment af­firms what we have al­ways known, that the Steel­pan is the heart­beat of Trinidad and To­ba­go and one of our great­est gifts to the world,” she said.

Ram­sey-Moore al­so paid trib­ute to the pi­o­neers who fought for the in­stru­ment’s ac­cep­tance, as well as the tuners, arrangers, com­posers, ed­u­ca­tors, per­form­ers, builders and thou­sands of mem­bers who have con­tributed to its de­vel­op­ment over the decades.

She al­so ex­pressed an­tic­i­pa­tion for an­oth­er mile­stone lat­er this year with the planned in­clu­sion of the steel­pan on the Re­pub­lic’s Coat of Arms.

The or­gan­i­sa­tion said the an­niver­sary al­so marks the start of its Au­gust Fest 2026 Steel­pan Month cel­e­bra­tions.

The month-long pro­gramme will fea­ture per­for­mances, ed­u­ca­tion­al ac­tiv­i­ties, com­mu­ni­ty out­reach ini­tia­tives and cul­tur­al events aimed at show­cas­ing the steel­pan’s con­tri­bu­tion to na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment, youth em­pow­er­ment, ed­u­ca­tion, tourism and cul­tur­al diplo­ma­cy.

Among the head­line events are the Au­gust Fest launch on Au­gust 2, World Steel­pan Day cel­e­bra­tions on Au­gust 11, the Pan & Pow­der Pa­rade through Port of Spain on Au­gust 19, and a se­ries of re­gion­al events host­ed by mem­ber steel or­ches­tras through­out the month.

Pan Trin­ba­go said it re­mains com­mit­ted to pre­serv­ing, pro­mot­ing and ad­vanc­ing the steel­pan while en­sur­ing fu­ture gen­er­a­tions con­tin­ue to ben­e­fit from its ed­u­ca­tion­al, cul­tur­al, so­cial and eco­nom­ic val­ue.

The or­gan­i­sa­tion al­so called on cit­i­zens to cel­e­brate the steel­pan not on­ly as the coun­try’s Na­tion­al Mu­si­cal In­stru­ment but as a last­ing sym­bol of Trinidad and To­ba­go’s cre­ativ­i­ty, in­no­va­tion and re­silience.