As pan goes everywhere, it continues to break new barriers and take new chances and offer young people unique opportunities.
Luke Walker, 15, a youthful pan player from Invaders Steel Orchestra just returned from a few weeks in England as part of a residency with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain (NYOGB).
He and young double bassist Mawasi Warner were both given a unique opportunity by Trinidad’s internationally known conductor, Kwame Ryan, himself a NYOGB graduate, who has recently created CONECTT a youth symphony network comprising musicians from Europe, the Americas and the Caribbean. Ryan was returning as a guest conductor at the NYOGB and brought these two young musicians with him.
Kwame Ryan had auditioned Luke Walker in May and with follow up auditions he was chosen. Initially Ryan had no plan to include a young pannist but he was mentioned during auditions and he was impressed.
Ryan said: “He's very musical and still quite young. I was about his age when I was exposed to NYOGB and thought it would help him decide whether he really wants a career in music. In the music business one needs to get on track young.”
Ryan had previously worked with Andy Narell conducting a piece that involved his group and the Orchestre National Bordeaux. Once he chose Walker, they worked on the material he needed to perform and how to bring pan into the residency.
Prior to his departure, Luke focused on two modern pieces for pan, both duets for pan and mirimba for him to perform with two percussionists from the National Youth Orchestra, Tom Pritchard and Eliot Gaston-Ross. The first was Open Window by Robert Chappell that he had composed to perform with Liam Teague his compatriot in the Percussion Department at Northern Illinois University. Open Window won the 2006 Percussive Arts Society Composition Contest. The second was Karakurenai (Japanese for foreign crimson) by Andy Akiho. It was part of a suite with pieces named for colors and was first written for a solo pan but can be adapted for a duet with marimba and the composer can be seen on youtube performing it that way. These were performed at the 'Play in the City' concert during the residency.
The NYOGB’s Creative Hub involved five youth composers who wrote pieces for small ensembles that were premiered at free concerts during the days of the symphony events. Luke’s main job after he arrived was to work with the five composers to familiarise them with the instrument and what it could do. Then with this knowledge they composed pieces for small ensembles that featured pan. The suite was called Tarot Reading, a set of five pieces inspired by the evocative imagery of Woodland Tarot Deck cards. It was performed along with the two duets at Snape Maltings Concert Hall in Aldeburgh, Symphony Hall in Birmingham, and at the Tate Britain Museum in London. For Ryan, this collaboration was very important. “NYO composers were exposed to the pan and all wrote pieces in which it was included. That's a great mindshare investment for the future of the instrument in contemporary classical music.”
Luke found the symphony’s dedication to the free events equally strong. “The initiative taken by NYO to put in the time and energy towards these free concerts, showed me that even though they are very serious about the preparations for their annual Proms concert at the Royal Albert Hall, they are never too good or too busy to bring joy into the life of the men, women and children in their community.”
But that wasn’t all. Walker played with the full youth orchestra as well.
“I had no orchestral experience before the residency. At the first tutti performance on Inspire day, where I made my timpani debut, I found myself truly taken aback. I remember thinking, “This is what I’ve been missing my entire life. This IS music!” He also played percussion with the orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall on Tansy Davies' new commission, Re-greening.
“I found my own unique way of blending in with my section and with the orchestra on a whole, contributing wholeheartedly to it as well as soaking up as much knowledge and experience as I can.”
Luke went on the next week to join his older brother Santiago at the Association of British Calypsonians tent at the Tabernacle. Santiago who was only in his third year in the tent took the award as the Groovy Soca Monarch.
Currently, Luke has two passions, music and sport. He used to swim, do water polo, hockey and chess but is focused now on music—especially pan—and is a serious at judo and indeed is a National Judo Athlete for T&T. He started on pan at age three and has been at it full bore ever since. He started playing in Woodbrook Brimblers in 2006. His playing was so good that word got out and for Panorama 2009 Luke was recruited to play with Invaders. He has continued to be an outstanding young member of the band ever since, being active with the stage side and playing Panorama every year. Last summer he went with The St Joseph’s Convent choir last June for the World Choir Games in Riga, Latvia the first Caribbean choir to participate, performing as the lead pannist on several pieces.
Ryan is excited that the trip to England was a triumph for himself and his charges. Masawi Warner had an equally positive experience especially performing with the orchestra. “I felt at one with the music, and couldn't help comparing the epic journey of [Mahler’s] 9th Symphony with my own personal NYO journey.”
The CONECTT residency in Trinidad culminated on September 5 at the St Joseph's Convent Auditorium in Port-of-Spain after ten days of workshops bringing 15 former members of the National Youth Orchestras of France and Great Britain, the Youth Orchestra of the Americas, the Freiburger Musikhoschule, Germany and the New York Youth Symphony. Luke performed Massesnet’s “Meditation” from the opera Thais, taking on tenor pan the violin part with the classical ensemble.
Before he took the trip, Luke had just taken his CSEC exams and got ten ones in O levels, one of them being music, and now is entering Sixth form at St Mary’s College. He is back to the stageside for Invaders Steel Orchestra where 75th anniversary events start on September 18. But he can’t stop thinking about his trip to England.
“Today, it sunk in how much of a life-changing experience this residency is. It has made me see clearly the potential I have to excel in music and that there are other young people on the same wavelength as I am.” For Luke Walker, such as opportunity has been renewed his desire to excel. “ln all, this tremendous experience served to intensify my passion for music. The enflamed spirit of the average NYOGB young musician has indeed rubbed off on me and the spark in my heart has caught fire.”