GETTING THE BEAT: Musician Ted Canning leads a group of Byron-Bergen fifth-graders in a traditional Trinidadian steel drum song as part of a grant-funded Artists in Education project.
Bergen - NY, USA — Trinidad and Tobago may be a long way from Byron-Bergen, but the sounds of the islands were heard in the halls of Byron-Bergen Elementary School recently. Eighty-nine fifth-graders learned the history of steel drum music and even got lessons on how to play thanks to a grant administrated by the Genesee-Orleans Regional Arts Council.
Musician Ted Canning taught students about the origins of the steel drum dating back to the first half of the twentieth century. As part of the lessons, Canning explained the evolution of music in Trinidad and Tobago under British colonial rule. The students learned how the music grew out of a fusion of West African, French, English, and East Indian influences.
This project is made possible with funds from the Decentralization Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, and is administered by Genesee-Orleans Regional Arts Council.
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