Grand Forks Herald
North Dakota, USA - If you close your eyes, you might think you're on a beach in the Caribbean, so mellow are the mesmerizing sounds of steel pan drums that fill the band room at UND's Hughes Fine Arts Center.
It's nearly impossible to not move with the rhythms that 13 students create with mallets on pans, sticks on the drum set, and hands on the shekere, a gourd-shaped instrument covered in a bead netting.
Under the direction of Mike Blake, members of the UND Steel Pan Band are preparing for a concert which begins at 8 p.m. Monday at the Chester Fritz Auditorium.
It will be the last time Blake, percussionist and teacher, will lead the group on stage. He intends to retire at the end of the school year, closing the book on a 42-year teaching career with the UND music department.
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