John Glenn steel drum group marching into first year

NEW CONCORD — What do you get when you take a 55-gallon steel oil drum and pound out the lid to create a pan? Why, a steel drum of course. It’s not a joke, and neither is the distictive sound the John Glenn High School Steel Drum Band, PanJGea, is creating in the school’s band room. The 24-strong contingent combines 12 students on the steel drums with others playing traditional percussion instruments, and many of the band ensemble members play other instruments in the orchestra or marching band. All 24 learn the steel drums as well as other percussion parts, in case they have to fill in for an absent group member. PanJGea performs “I just like the challenge of it, and it was an opportunity to learn a new instrument and play in a prestige group,” said senior Thomas Young, who also plays the saxophone and trombone. “I’ve played in the band and marching band, so I don’t have to focus on learning the music. It’s just something new.” When he pitched his idea to start a steel drum ensemble to school officials and booster members last winter, Musical Director Jonathan Kelsey had hoped that the appeal of providing a new learning tool would be a winner. Kelsey was with the inaugural steel drum group at Dover High School in 1991 and developed a love for the sound, which continued on in college at the University of Akron, which also has a group. But he didn’t anticipate 60 students in his 63-member band ready to give it a try. “It had been a dream of mine to pass along the love and inspiration this instrument can bring out,” Kelsey said. “It was a big response. The school said they would support it if the boosters supported it. And the week after Christmas, I was ordering the drums.” The drums were specially made in Philadelphia by Kyle Dunleavy Steel Drums, one of only a few places in the country that makes and tunes the instruments, Kelsey said. “I drove there to get them and we started rehearsing in May,” he said. Kelsey didn’t make students audition, since they were new to the drums, instead looking for students who showed dedication to the band program, musical aptitude, responsibility and accountability. Although they still were getting acquainted with the drums, the group made its first appearance at the district’s volunteer banquet in June. Both Thomas and fellow senior Megan Sindeldecker said they were nervous that first time out. “It was nerve-wracking because you are performing in front of the people who supported starting this, and you didn’t want to mess up,” Thomas said. “But it was great, because the people were really kind of into it and dancing,” added Sindeldecker, whose brother Kyle Morgan played steel drums at Akron. “I think at first people didn’t know how to react to the music, and we weren’t loosening up. This isn’t music you normally hear, unless you’ve been on a cruise or went to Jamaica or something. But once they got into it, the music started coming easily for us. Where at first it was just us banging on drums, we’re incorporating the musicality into it.” It was a watershed moment for Kelsey as well. “To see how people would react to it that first time, well, teachers were getting up and dancing,” he said. The group has added three performances at the Muskingum County Fair this summer, played at the Cambridge Country Club and has two more upcoming shows in October in Cambridge, at the Cambridge Fall Festival Oct. 4 and at the Pritchard-Laughlin Center Oct. 15. For that show, which is in conjunction with the Beatles tribute group 1964, the ensemble is learning “Here Comes the Sun.” “I think this style of music gives our students a different way to express themselves that they don’t get to express with their other instruments,” he said. “I think it’s just going to continue to grow, like the pun intended in the name PanJGea, the idea that all the continents were together (Pangea) and started in one place and then continued to grow. I think through wor

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John Glenn steel drum group marching into first year

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