BOONE—Fans of the Steely Pan Steel Band from Appalachian State University’s Hayes School of Music can experience the excitement and energy the musicians bring to performances March 20 at 6 p.m. in the Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts on campus. General admission tickets are $8 and go on sale Tuesday, March 15, at Schaefer Center box office.
Concert goers will be treated to compositions typically performed at Trinidad’s Panorama competition and local fan favorites as well.
Director Byron Hedgepeth said, “We are adding some Panorama tunes that haven’t been performed for a few years and three songs written or arranged by former members of the band.”
The lively “Birthday Party” by Len “Boogsie” Sharpe opens the performance. Sharpe was considered a child prodigy of the steel pan. Written in 1992, “Birthday Party” won second place in a Panorama competition. Arrangements of “Glory,” “Under the Sea” and “Whey de Pan Man” by former Steely Pan director Scott Meister also will be performed.
Jonathan Scales’ arrangement of “I Just Can’t Wait to be King” from the Disney cartoon “The Lion King” also is on the program. Scales, an alumnus of the band and Appalachian, is a successful steel pan performer and composer based in Asheville. The band will perform a version of “Reptilia” by the rock band The Strokes, arranged by steel pan band member and Hayes School of Music senior Jonathon Sale. Sale is this year’s recipient of the Steely Pan Steel Band Scholarship.
Other compositions on the program are the traditional pan tune “Tamboo Bamboo to Steel,” “Rubber Band Man,” “Pan2” by Appalachian alumnus and Los Angeles-based percussionist Chris Wabich and “My Paradise” by Ellie Mannette, who is considered “the father of the modern steel drum.”
The band recently performed at the Cape Fear Friends of the Fine Arts Community Concert Series at Campbell University and will perform in April at the Hiddenite Arts and Heritage Center.
About Appalachian State University
As a premier public institution, Appalachian State University prepares students to lead purposeful lives. App State is one of 17 campuses in the University of North Carolina System, with a national reputation for innovative teaching and opening access to a high-quality, cost-effective education. The university enrolls more than 21,000 students, has a low student-to-faculty ratio and offers more than 150 undergraduate and 80 graduate majors at its Boone and Hickory campuses and through App State Online. Learn more at https://www.appstate.edu.
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