The Multicultural Music Programme Unit (MMPU) of the Ministry of Education, in positively contributing to the future of Panorama, held its first ever Drummers’ Workshop 2020 on Thursday 23 January 2020. This was aimed at preparing students for the National Schools’ Junior Panorama Competition.
Students were exposed to the “scratchers,” iron beaters, drums and other instruments that compose the “engine room” of a steelband. There is currently a dearth of young percussionists under the age of 21 in the schools pan panorama sector and this Workshop was designed to address this scarcity by developing young, quality drummers who can contribute in the primary school steelbands.
Representatives from approximately twenty-five (25) primary and secondary schools attended the Workshop, which was a joint collaboration between the MMPU, Pan Trinbago and the Tobago House of Assembly.
The Honourable Anthony Garcia, Minister of Education expressed his support for the Workshop, stressing its importance as being a vehicle for the ensuring that the country’s students remain aware of the importance of immersing themselves in the steelband by playing it at every opportunity.
“In so doing, they would be ensuring that they keep the heritage of the steelband alive for generations to come and to show the world that our national instrument was invented here, and it will always belong to us,” he said.