Dr. Dawn Batson
Associate Professor
Florida Memorial University
Florida - She is one of the world’s foremost experts, educators and promoters of the steelpan instrument. Her name is synonymous with inspiring and guiding young musicians to achievement, greatness and academic excellence. When Steel Talks caught Dr. Dawn Batson for a candid interview about the steelpan artform, her involvement and hopes for the instrument.
Ms. Batson remembers her earliest experience with the steelpan about the age of four with Desperadoes Steel Orchestra. She was fascinated by the sound of Desperadoes and lost her family at that point but they eventually found her - within the basses in the steel orchestra. Dr. Batson who plays a few other instruments, says that “there is something about the sound of the steel orchestra that is like no other instrument” - and there lies her fascination with the instrument. “It is just a connection - I don’t know if it is an ancestral connection or just the beauty of the steel... there is just a connection.”
