Creating Music, Uniting People, Building Communities
In The Panyard
Keli Ross-Ma’u, a music student from the U.S., studies and performs with the Pamberi Steel Orchestra in Trinidad, the birthplace of the steel pan. Ross-Ma’u gets an insider’s experience of the Panyard, a community center where people of all ages from the surrounding neighborhood gather for steel pan rehearsals, and he learns how the country’s unique instrument and personal methods of teaching music create a close bond within the community. At the end of the semester, Ross-Ma’u switches roles from a player to a conductor, when he composes two new songs for the steel pan, and holds his own rehearsals with the Pamberi Orchestra who learn and play his songs in a concert.
Interested in screening the documentary as part of a guest lecture series or learning how Kainga Music is building panyards in local communities, please email.