Steel Pan Orchestra to play Powerhouse

The University of Southern Mississippi’s Steel Pan Orchestra will play in the Powerhouse courtyard on Tuesday, October 20.  The event, which is part of USM’s School of Music Presidential Brown Bag Lunch Concert Series, takes place between noon and 1 p.m.

The event is one of several free lunchtime events organized by the School of Music at USM’s Hattiesburg Campus. The Steel Pan Orchestra are the second group to play this semester.  Alison Crumpton, PR/Marketing Coordinator for USM’s School of Music, highly recommends the event and urges USM students to make their way to the powerhouse this afternoon.

“I encourage everyone to come out to hear Southern Miss Steel Pan Orchestra today,” Crumpton said. “They are very lively and an entertaining group.”

The Southern Miss Steel Band was founded in spring 1994 by Dr. John Wooton, starting out as a six piece ensemble, including a drum set and percussion. Since then, the band has grown to 30 people in all. The Southern Miss Steel Pan Orchestra consists of several different voices in the steel band instrumentation family, including lead pans, double tenors, double seconds, guitar pans, cello pans, tenor bass pans, bass pans, a drum set and various percussion instruments known as the Engine Room.

While Southern Miss Steel Pan Orchestra is the name of the whole ensemble, the group breaks down into smaller groups who perform for various functions like festivals and parties.

“Spring is when we play a lot of festivals,” Wooten said. “Smaller groups play at parties to get more professional experience.”

Their repertoire consists of traditional calypso and soca tunes, as well as popular tunes, classical, Cuban and jazz music. Artists who have performed with the Southern Miss Steel Pan Orchestra include Dr. Ellie Mannette, “Father of the Steel Drum,” who built the first metal instrument from a 55 gallon drum in 1946 in Port of Spain, Trinidad and created and tuned most instruments used by Southern Miss Steel Pan Orchestra, as well as world-renowned recording artist Andy Narell, recording artist Gary Gibson and The U.S. Navy Steel Band.

For booking information please contact Dr. John Wooton at (601)266-4993 or John.Wooton@usm.edu.

For a full list of USM’s School of Music concerts visit: http://www.usm.edu/music.