Last Friday night saw a number of visitors come to the school including a steel pan playing lion. All was going well until the lion chased away the drummer. Fortunately, there was another one in the house and the show was able to continue!
The evening included a skit about the history of steel pan told by David Gettes and acted out by our grade 6 students, a performance by Provo Primary Steel band and other performances by David Gettes on steel pan with his son Jeremy on drums.
The evening ended with a limbo competition and great fun was had by all!
David is a steel pan tuner and performer who studied with Ellie Mannette, also known as the father of the modern steel drum instrument. David was fortunate enough to study and live with Ellie for 6 years, as his apprentice, learning how to build all the different voices of the steel orchestra. He is currently a board member of the International Association of Pan- promoting steel pan development in construction, arrangement and performance.
The main purpose of David’s visit was to tune the Provo Primary School drums. He also brought new steel drums to the school for which we are extremely grateful to FOPPS and TCFAF for their generous donations towards the costs.
During his time on Provo, David worked with children in the school, teaching them about the history of steel pan and also performed at various places around town.
All in all it was a really informative, rewarding and exciting week. We are looking forward to David’s return to Provo early next year when he plans to tune Clement Howel’s steel drums. We are hoping to raise more funds by this time, allowing us to purchase additional drums so that even more of our children can learn to play.
Sounds like grrrreat fun! I hope you got a sound recording. Watch out for those lions though, you don’t want any dangerous animals out on the loose.
Our family had such a great time at this event! The kids, parents and faculty were all very warm and receptive to all of us.
Thanks so much for the good time. Fortunately, we did not find any stow aways in the steel drum cases.