Boston, USA - Like many Berklee alumni, steelpan player Shawn Thwaites '03 grew up in a musical family. But when he came to Berklee, he brought them along with him. The professional music major and his older brother Sherwin enrolled at the same time. Then their younger brother Sheldon moved up from Maryland to attend first the Boston Arts Academy and then Berklee. Today, the brothers are working together to record a steelpan version of the music of Miles Davis.
Thwaites travels all over the world with the Muslim hip-hop group Native Deen, but his roots are in Martinsville, Virginia, where his Pan United Youth Movement is based at a local Boys and Girls Club. The group now involves more than 20 children, on its way to becoming a full 50-person steel drum orchestra. At the age of 8, his daughter Kamari is the youngest member.
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