ARKADELPHIA -- Ouachita Baptist University's Tiger Steel Band will present its fall concert at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 4 in Mabee Fine Arts Center's McBeth Recital Hall on Ouachita's campus. The recital is free and open to the public.
"We hope to entertain and educate the audience about how versatile a musical instrument the steel pan is and about the culture and music of Trinidad and Tobago," Ryan Lewis, Ouachita assistant professor of music and director of the ensemble, said in a news release. "In the end, what matters most is that we make people smile!"
Ouachita, the only university in Arkansas with an active steel band, has three on campus -- Tiger Steel, Pan Jouvet and Tiger Steel Combo. Tiger Steel will open the concert with their signature opening song "Jump in the Line" by Harry Belafonte. Other pieces include "Don't Worry, Be Happy" by Bobby McFerrin and "Take on Me" by A-ha. Pan Jouvet will perform "Bacchanal Lady" by David Rudder and Peter J. Wilhousky's arrangement of "Carol of the Bells" by Mykola Leontovich. Tiger Steel will finish the concert with "Bahia Girl" by David Rudder with special guest Carlos Feller on flute and "Dus' in Deh Face" by David Rudder.
"Tiger Steel combines two things I love: percussion and my Caribbean heritage," Anna Joie Valdez, a senior musical theatre major from Terrell, Texas, said. "We've played for Ouachita, Disney World, high schools, elderly communities and even a children's hospital, and no matter who we play for, they always end up smiling and grooving."
Some pieces of music are written specially for steel pans, but the steel band plays a variety of musical styles. They play genres including classical, funk, reggae, rock, pop, jazz, Brazilian, Latin or calypso and soca from Trinidad, which is their main focus.
For more information, contact Ryan Lewis at [email protected] or 870-245-5421.
Entertainment on 11/22/2017