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Four weeks ago, the idea of a team of performers representing Scotiabank Caribana in the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics was only an idea. But on Sunday February 14th 2010  a group of professionals stepped on the stage at Ontario House and performed in song, on the steelpan, and danced in masquerade costumes to change the face of the Winter Olympics. Repeated performances solidified the Carnival atmosphere so much so that the sun had to come out to support the heat and enthusiasm generated.

Being able to prepare within the limited facilities and produce such dazzling performances is a testament to the pride that you all have in the Carnival arts and when you look at the display in Olympic Village street parade, Steelpan delighted the amazed audiences who could not believe their eyes. Your( Panpiper) generousity and patience to allow members of the public to be photographed was a testament to the pride that you all felt to represent the festival. 

Thanks to Winston and Louis for selecting the performers for this trip. Thanks Martin for creating a tight and entertaining 45-minute program that incorporated all the elements of Scotiabank Caribana. And a major thanks to the wonderful group of performers. When in an unscripted moment, members of the audience spontaneously came up on stage to dance to the steel pan music, it confirmed in that you made Ontario House the place to be!!! 

Thanks to everyone once again.  In a short period of time, you raised the profile of the festival and generated immense promotion and publicity. I'm sure that they're missing us!!

Denise Herrera Jackson

Festival Management Committee - Director

Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics - Scotiabank Festival presentation

The Swedish physicist Ulf Kronman, author of Steel Pan Tuning, describes Williams’ innovation as “ingenious” and writes, “In this way the harmonics of the octave, the fifth and the fourth, will surround each note and help up the harmonics spectrum of the tone.” (K. Johnson)

ALLAN GERVAIS

IN SPAIN 1975

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Pan for the People in the Office

Each February, The Government of Canada invites Canadians to take part in events that commemorate the legacy of Black Canadians.  Black History Month is an opportunity to celebrate and learn about the contributions that Afro-Canadians have made to Canada.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Toronto Regional Office, will be observing Black History Month on various days within the month of February. In order to help us celebrate this occasion and learn more about this rich culture, we would like to invite various community members of African American decent, to showcase their cultural talent and share with us their life experiences and stories.

By way of this letter we would like to request you to take part in our celebrations by sharing and teaching us about the world of music and the steelpan. 

          Steelpan Partnership: Support the Second Chance Foundation

                             Touch the Flags

Hameed Shaqq
Pan Piper of Toronto 

Dear Hameed, We were delighted to have worked with you at the Commonwealth Games Canada on March 5, 2011. The Commonwealth public relations department has sent us these official comments and we would like to share them with you. 

PAN PIPER OF TORONTO: 

On behalf of Commonwealth Games Canada, I'd like to thank Shaqq Hameed--a.k.a "the Pan Piper of Toronto"--for sharing his amazing steel-drum talents with us during the reception and banquet at our Annual General Meeting. Shaqq provided an upbeat, sunny soundtrack for our celebration. All of us (and, in particular, our staff member from Trinidad and Tobago), were delighted with the Caribbean flavour he brought to the event. Despite the drizzly March weather in Toronto, it was almost as though all of us had journeyed south for Carnival. 

Christine A. Robertson 

Finance Officer 

Comonwealth Games Association of Canada  

Kindly yours, 

Carol Priest 

Creative Director

Ricard and Richard

Mr Ed owner of the Real Jerk

PAN IN ZHUHAI, GUANGDONG, CHINA 

Pan is Science too oui!

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Pan Swirls
My presentation is intended to develop a wider universal understanding and appreciation for the steelpan instrument as another member to the family of musical instruments, similar to the Vibraphone and other idophones. With some demonstrations of performance techniques and approaches to improvisation, I will permit the audience to discover the versatility and creativity the steelpan brings to jazz, Classical and other genre of music. In terms of our colloquium’s theme, Improvising Matters: Rights, Risk and Responsibilities, I will show how improvisation and innovation are innate to the steelpan and how the instrument is thus a natural vehicle for any form of music as a whole.
   Outside the steelpan community, very little is known about the art and collaborative principles required to play this latest member in the Idiopathic family. Indeed, many people are unaware that the steel pan can play the full gamut of musical genres, including gospel and jazz. This presentation will combine live demonstrations of the instrument’s capabilities as a tool of improvisation with explanations of its origins, construction, and musical capacity. In listening to live performances on soprano, tenor and alto steelpans, the audience will gain insight into pan improvisation in various historical and cultural contexts. The music performed will be drawn from a range of recognized jazz, classical and many composers compositions. The aim is to communicate with the audience, via the steelpan, the technique, sensitivity and imagination inherent to improvisation and creativity. This presentation will also be important in showing how creativity and innovation are intrinsic to the steelpan, this unique modern-day musical invention. As the historical component of the presentation will reveal, this instrument is, in itself, an unprecedented demonstration of improvisation and social cooperation, first emerging publicly only in 1945, on VE Day, in the streets of Trinidad. Sixty-plus years later, it continues to provide enjoyment to listeners and challenges to musicians as a unique element of our Canadian ethnology-cultural diversity.
The Industrial Revolution brought massive changes for all human beings. Humanity, the quality of life and expectations was transformed into segments never before experience in the history of the world. Musicians including Drummers and Musical Instruments were not separated by this new world order and we now reaping many benefits in the 21st century. I will explain the transition between the traditional drums to the “Steel Drum Pan” or Pan for short. Because, there was never a Drum that played the rudiments of music on the same surface, though; many cultured ones shared the different between multi drums and tones, with the Timpani as an example.A Steel Drum was shaped into an instrument; the most unique factor about this is, that since history credited Pythagoras, 6th century BC calculations of the musical cycle of fourths and fifths no instrument was ever made to follow his configuration. Describing the origin and evolution of the steelpan , explaning the fabrication while demonstrating techniques for  playing the instrument with students of all ages is the object of the Workshop.
 Although the steelpan, is sometimes called the steel “drum”, in fact, it is tuned to A 440 and produces a full range of musical notes. Both melodies and harmonies can be played, simultaneously on the steelpan. Colloquium participants will have a chance to see and perhaps play an instrument whose notes have been hammered and fired into a discarded oil drum in the”cycle of fifths” – recycling at its richest. Description and demonstration will show how technology can be used as a tool in the art of steelpan playing and improvisation. The steelpan is an emerging musical instrument, inspiring a discipline that incorporates new models extending beyond the traditional genres – both in terms of physical construction and musical expression. 
Other musical instruments will be welcome the traditional instrumental as accompaniment in a united format, An obvious specific expectation of this presentation is that, at the end, participanting audience will be able to define criteria for analyzing steelpan improvisations and musical phrasings with comparisons to other instruments.
Hameed Shaqqwww.thepanpiper.com