This is what happens when you take Local Government, Business interests and the Arts Society working together...Virginia Beach is coast line city promoted as a weekend getaway and family-fun vacation destination. A 3 mile boardwalk along the ocean front. This is a FREE event now in its 14 year.
Virginia Arts Festival presents the Virginia International PANFest! This promotional video includes tons of info on the event some great footage from last year's festival. Be sure to attend PANFest 2016, and see our headlining artist this year, Liam Teague and the Northern Illinois University Steel Band!
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Q&A: Dave Longfellow, Champion of Pan
Nelson Madela once said, "Education is the most powerful which you can use to change the world." If that's true, there's no one who can validate that ideal more than Dave Longfellow.
Having grown up playing pan, Longfellow, a native of Morgantown, W.V., was given access to the instrument that only those in Trinidad and Tobago are privy. Even then, not everyone gets to learn from the inventor of the modern steelpan, Ellie Mannette.
From student to teacher, Longfellow has become an example for others to follow, making a career out of teaching, playing, composing/arranging music and organizing events for the steelpan. As the head organizer for the Mannette Festival of Steel and chief organizer for the Virginia Beach International PAN Fest, Longfellow has made a mark on the instrument by making the most of his early education and becoming a champion for the instrument in the United States.
1. How did you get introduced to pan? What do you love most about it?
I was introduced to pan by my middle school band director, a WVU (West Virginia University) percussion graduate named Chip Buck. I always wanted to play drums since elementary school, but Chip insisted I learn a wind instrument first so I could learn how to read music. (Great call, btw!) I was introduced to pan at 10 and it was a perfect match—a melodic instrument that I could hit like a drum!
2. Where did you go to school? Did you study pan there?
I grew up in Morgantown, W.V. and started playing pan at age 10. There was no high school program in town, and there still isn’t one, so I started studying with the WVU Percussion Director, Tim Peterman, at age 11. I then stayed in Morgantown and attended WVU for my undergraduate and graduate degrees in Jazz Studies. The majority of my pan education came from Ellie’s summer workshops in Morgantown, my travels to Trinidad, DC, and Brooklyn, and working with various pan programs throughout the U.S. while in high school and college.
http://www.pan-mag.com/feature-stories/qa-dave-longfellow-champion-...
Corporate Sponsorship Promo...
The Virginia PANorama Caribbean Music Festival 2011