Trinidad Express
In the midst of global headlines for all the wrong reasons, a group of boys and young men will reveal a different side of T&T when they take to the renowned stage of Carnegie Hall in New York next Wednesday.
Judging from their recent performance at Queen's Hall, St Ann's, the youths of St Margaret's Boys' Steel Orchestra are sure to leave their mark at Carnegie Hall when they perform in the Sounds of Summer International Music Festival on Wednesday. It will be only the second time in 28 years that a steelband would have performed at Carnegie Hall, the first being Desperadoes in 1987.
Theirs is an astutely crafted repertoire of classical European music, American pop music, calypso standards, popular music from Africa and India, Jamaica reggae, French Caribbean zouk and, of course, Trinidad soca. In the hands of St Margaret's players, aged eight to 18, the steelpan shone for its legendary musicality and versatility and its power to enrapture audiences. As impressive, however, was Pan's impact on the youngsters themselves. The confidence and command they displayed were matched only by the disciplined joy in their work. The boys of St Margaret's Boys' Steel Orchestra are definitely going places.
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