Conversation with Salmon Cupid --

Toronto Carnival

About Salmon Cupid

• Born in the twin island of Trinidad and Tobago, Salmon Cupid began playing the steelpan with the St. Augustine Senior Comprehensive School where he led the band in several music festivals and competitions and winning the Steelpan Music Festival in the twin island.

• He toured with the school to Europe, and his experience on these tours confirmed to him that his idea of the electronic steelpan was crucial to the progress of steelpan.

• In 1994, Salmon was selected by Pan Trinbago to be a “steelpan cultural ambassador” as part of the demand by schools internationally to teach and expose pan in Canada. With it came the offer of a permanent job with the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) teaching music using the steelpan instrument at several schools across the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).

• In 2000, he entered a steelband in the Kiwanis Music Festival in Toronto, which was previously unheralded. For the next six years, the band consistently won the competition. Also in 2000, with the support of the students, parents, teachers, and community at large, he founded an alumni band called the Toronto All Stars Steel Orchestra (TASSO).

• TASSO represented Canada at the Aberdeen International Youth Festival in Scotland in 2002; in 2007 TASSO performed at the Sydney Opera House; Festival Orchestre Giovanili (FOG) where they performed in cities like Tuscany and the Rome areas of Italy. In 2013 TASSO toured Munich, Salzburg, Vienna, and Prague when they participated in a World Music Festival there.

• TASSO played in the championship parade for the Toronto Raptors, NBA champions in 2019 • With the traditional steel pan, a skilled pannist with two sticks in each hand can play four notes simultaneously. The E-Pan allows a pannist to use all fingers and play ten notes or a full chord with two and a half octaves just like a keyboard.

• The E-Pan not only delivers the “steelpan sound”, it also encompasses the full range of the orchestral symphony such as violin, guitar, piano and horns, which can also be blended with other sounds to favour and flavour experimentation, enhancing the musical versatility of the pannist. This will allow and afford pannists greater opportunities for valuable work, whether performing solo or as “accompanist”.

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