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Pan-handlers Steel Drum Band
Director:
Pan-handlers is Minnesota’s premier steel drum band. Our tropical sound and varied song selection is guaranteed to get your body moving and your spirit soaring!
The Pan‑handlers play at various events throughout the Twin Cities area and beyond. We play just about every style of music, but with a tropical flair that can only be created by the steel pan.
For more information about booking the band, playing pan, or attending an upcoming performance, visit our website or contact director@pan-handlers.org.
Tin Cups Steel Drum Band
Director:
No experience? No problem!
Founded in 2018, Tin Cups is our steel-drum ensemble for amateur players. The Tin Cups perform in parades and events during the summer months, offering learning and performance opportunities for novice pan players or players with limited availability. At least once per season, Tin Cups performs with our professional steel drum band, Pan-handlers, in a concert setting, creating a steel drum band with more than 30 musicians!
No experience is necessary, but a willingness to practice and learn is mandatory! We offer the public a way to play and learn steel drums with no stress. If you enjoy it and want to continue for the summer, join Tin Cups and take a pan home to practice. It’s simple…and IT’S FREE! Visit our website for more information, or contact director@tincups.org.
Pan Outreach Program
Director:
Throughout the school year, Chops' Pan Outreach program provides free steel-drum residencies to urban, K-12 public schools. Over the course of a three- to six-week residency, students learn to play these incredible instruments while learning about the history of Trinidad & Tobago, birthplace of the steel pan. We bring the instruments and the instructors to each host school, giving students an opportunity to play pan and prepare for a performance.
To better facilitate group learning, we developed a classroom method for beginning steel-drum band. Our method includes descriptions of techniques, etudes, diagrams of note layouts and cross-curriculum information about the culture and craftsmanship of steel drums. Pan Outreach provides copies of our classroom method to each host school.
This incredible, free music-education offering prepares students for a performance. We can also work with host schools to add our steel-drum curriculum to a general music class, offer steel band as an extracurricular/after school activity, or as an added ensemble for band students or percussionists. A combination of these options is often employed, and we welcome other ideas as well.
For FAQs and to find out more about to get the Pan Outreach program into your classroom, visit our website or contact info@pan-handlers.org.
Chops' Pan Outreach program is funded in part by a grant from the NEA.
