Trinidad and Tobago Newsday
Trinidad & Tobago, W.I. - Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit this country, seven-year-old Aaliyah Livingston was mesmerised as she watched her grandfather teach her “older” schoolmates to play the steelpan.
But being in the infant department of Couva Anglican Primary School meant that she was too young to be part of the school’s steelpan band.
One day in April 2020, and out of the blue, Aaliyah told her grandfather David “Pin” Sylvester, 76 [at right], a pan aficionado, she wanted to learn to play the national instrument. Her first lesson began that same day on a tenor pan at the family’s home at Basta Hall in Couva.
....Steelpan music appears to run through her veins. Her grandfather is a legend in the steelband fraternity. Sylvester co-founded NGC Couva Joylanders and has played with several bands over the years. Some of these were BP Renegades Steel Orchestra, Tokyo Steel Orchestra and Caribbean Airlines Skiffle Steel Orchestra (formerly known as Skiffle Bunch).
....“Aaliyah has a love for pan, so it was not a problem for her to learn quickly. She always hears pan music at home. She also watches my daughter Danica Livingston, who plays with Hadco Phase II Pan Groove,” Sylvester said.
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