Steel pan concert at the House of Culture

The steel pan evolved from African drums and its music is unique to the Caribbean region. It has developed a strong following and if you like pan music for the first time, the four steel pan bands in the country—three from Belize City and one from Belmopan—will converge at the House of Culture to put off a Pan Yaad Concert tonight. Over a hundred individual and some joint performances are planned. The pieces will include both local and international arrangements and according to Director of the Institute of the Creative Arts, Gregory Vernon, the festive event caters for the young and the old.

Gregory Vernon, Director, Institute of the Creative Arts
“The pan yaad as we say in Creole is four steel pans from the country of Belize—one out of Belmopan, three out of Belize city—and if you could imagine a hundred and twenty-eight pieces of pan playing together. This is one of the first time that Belize will be witnessing a large pan in Belize. Of course you know that the individual pans will be playing individually. We have the Grace Primary Steel Pan, we have the Pantastics, we have the Panerrifixs, we also have the All Star Steel Pans that will be playing. All of them are under very great directorship: Mister Humes, Miss Juliet Barrow, Rochelle Armstrong and of course, Carlos Perrote. And so we know that these would be very good arrangement for music. Tonight will be a very good night for the Carnival Association and also the institute of creative arts school is sponsoring this event. And this is all in line with the September celebrations and the carnival spirit. So, we’ll be getting the soca and then we’ll be getting the local music; the brukdown, we’ll be getting some local patriotic music, we’ll be getting some classical music all pan.”

The pan-tastics that Vernon is referring to is in fact the Pantempters Steel Band. The event starts at seven p.m. Entrance for adults is five dollars and kids enter for free.