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NIU Music Students Going To The Superbowl of Steelband - Panorama
Added: (Fri Feb 03 2006)
Trinidad - Liam Teague, resident arranger of Skiffle Bunch Steel Orchestra is looking forward to a promising 2006 panorama season. Skiffle Bunch, located in Southern Trinidad, hope to again find themselves competing for the national title in the finals for this year's panorama. The steel orchestra placed eighth in the finals in 2005.
Liam is also an associate professor and assistant director of Northern Illinois University's (NIU) steelpan program and told When Steel Talks that he finished the arrangement two weeks ago. He is now in the process of tiding up the piece as Skiffle Bunch prepares for their preliminary performance on February 6th. This is a particularly special panorama season for the US-based arranger, as ten steelpan majors from NIU will travel to Trinidad to participate in the semi-finals with Skiffle Bunch - should they move past the preliminaries to that next level. Together with NIU Steelpan Co-director Clifford Alexis, Liam Teague instituted the program as a means of enhancing the educational and cultural experience of NIU's steelpan majors.
Skiffle Bunch, according to Liam, is responding well to this year's tune of choice, Destra Garcia's "Colors Again." Liam feels that the band has connected better with this year's selection because the tune is a popular one with the younger generation, and the steel orchestra is made up primarily of young people. He noted that last year's selection "Pan Night and Day" was unknown to many of the players, due to the fact that it was originally popularized in 1985.