On Saturday 31st August , 2019, fifty- three persons graduated from the Starlift Steel Orchestra\u2019s Summer Programme.
The Progrmme, spanning six weeks and conducted by ace pannist and arranger Kingsley \u2018Hero\u2019 Roberts, exposed the participants to the basic techniques of playing the various pans.
And the graduates were more than willing to give a taste of their newly unearthed talent and skills, and displayed their dexterity, with rendition of a number of pieces at last Saturday\u2019s Graduation.
The graduates were also given first-hand insights from Saeed Bowman, who himself graduated from the Starlift Steel Orchestra\u2019s Summer Programme in 2008.
Bowman, who was last Saturday\u2019s Feature Speaker, extolled the personal virtues of music and more so, the steel pan.\u00a0
According to Bowman, “Music literally changed my life\u2026 It opened avenues and doors for me. \u2026\u00a0 I love playing pan so much that it\u2019s never a task, and that\u2019s how it should be.\u00a0 It really helped me evolve, not just in pan but as a person, in school and discipline.\u201d\u00a0
Bowman, who recently completed studies at the St Vincent and the Grenadines Community College, continued, “It was my pan that soothed me during my panics, and calmed me when I got stressed\u2026 Couldn\u2019t solve that Mathematical Induction? Pan break! Had a problem measuring Magnetic Flux Density or remembering Kirchoff\u2019s laws? Pan break! As much as my note books helped me in school, the pan also played a part in making sure I didn\u2019t lose my mind.\u201d
In encouraging the gradates, Bowman related, “For you it may be as well, or maybe some other instrument or passion, but whatever it is, in order to excel at it, you must put in the time, but also keep focussed on other things that are priorities in your life\u201d.\u00a0
Other persons addressing the ceremony: Captain of the Starlift Steel Orchestra \u2013 Roddy Dowers; President of the Youlou Pan Movement- Ms Oneka Morgan; Parliamentary Representative of Central Kingstown- Hon. St Clair Leacock, and Rene Baptiste, former Minister of Culture.
The Starlift Steel Orchestra won both the Junior and Senior Panorama at the 2019 Vincy Mas in June, July<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On Saturday 31st August , 2019, fifty- three persons graduated from the Starlift Steel Orchestra\u2019s Summer Programme.The Progrmme, spanning six weeks and conducted by ace pannist and arranger Kingsley \u2018Hero\u2019 Roberts, exposed the participants to the basic techniques of playing the various pans.And the graduates were more than willing to give a taste of their<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":6096,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-local-news","category-mainstory"],"yoast_head":"\n