Steelpan laboratory established at UWI

THE PAN FRATERNITY must adopt a structured approach to research and development of the national musical instrument, in order for this country to maintain its technical supremacy with the instrument, a government official has said. Finbar Ryan, Director of Culture, expressed these thoughts on Friday evening at the commissioning of a pan laboratory at the Faculty of Engineering at the University of the West Indies, St Augustine Campus. The pan lab, headed by researcher Dr Brian Copeland has been established through the Steelpan Development Centre which is also based at the UWI, St Augustine.

Speaking on behalf of Junior Culture Minister Edward Hart, who was unable to attend the function due to other matters of State, Ryan said once Trinidad and Tobago maintained technical supremacy of the steelpan, the country would be in a position to exploit the considerable commercial benefits associated with the industry. He said that the lack of a structured environment for training tuners was a critical deficiency that must be overcome.

Ryan said: “In order to advance the steelpan as an instrument and increase productivity, quality and consistency, scientific knowledge and technological innovations must be grounded in enhancing the skills of the pan builders/tuners and assisting them to increase their output and quality.” Present at the unveiling of the pan laboratory were Dr Bhoe Tewarie, principal at UWI, St Augustine; Keith Byer, vice-president of Pan Trinbago; Dr Anne Marion Osborne, head of the department of Music at UWI; pan tuner Clifford Alexis and Junior Augustus Howell, music curriculum officer at the Ministry of Education. At the pan laboratory Dr Copeland and his team are expected to continue intense work into the science of the pan.

Dr Copeland and Dr Clement Imbert of the SDC as well as others, came in for high praise for struggling with their research to get this far and without resources. Ryan said the efforts of researchers must be tried and tested in real-life tuning situations. “This would be greatly facilitated by the Steelpan Academy where researchers and tuners can meet and work on common ground and mutual understanding,” he said.