Observer - Reporter
The sounds of the islands will be heard at Washington High School at 7 p.m. Thursday.
The Washington High School Steel Drum Band will perform, as well as the Canon-McMillan Pan and Drum Ensemble. There is no charge to attend the presentation.
The first Steel Drum Band Festival at Wash High will feel like one big family reunion.
Retired Steel Drum Band founder J. Marc Svaline will be in attendance as three of his former students, now music teachers themselves, are steel band conductors.
Svaline started the Steel Band at Washington High School in 1985. He was band director at Washington from 1969 to 2004, the longest tenure in the state at the same school as band director.
During that time, the marching band played at Disney World in 1974 and 1976, becoming the first high school band to march there. While in Disney World, Svaline saw a performance of a legendary steel band from Trinidad play at the “Pirates of the Caribbean” ride, and he said he became “hooked” on the sound.
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