WSU’s steel band seeks ‘adoptions’
By Julie Rausch
WSU’s steel band program is urgently in need of new instruments, and Joseph Peck, WSU music education graduate, adjunct professor and leader of the university’s Steel Pan Orchestra, is leading the effort for the Adopt-A-Drum Project. The drums the WSU program hopes to beat are Ellie Mannette’s signature series steel pans.
Mannette, from Trinidad, West Indies, is the inventor of steel pan drums. He’s currently an adjunct professor and artist-in-residence for the past decade at the University of West Virginia.
WSU’s School of Music purchased some of Mannette’s factory-made pans, which are now 20 years old. They are cracked and nearly unmanageable, Peck says. Other drums used by the 15 or so students in the program have been purchased through fund raising, with money earned by students at gigs, or they use Peck’s drums.
Mannette has agreed to make a set for the steel pan ensemble, and Peck hopes to raise $45,000 by the end of this year.
Mannette began making pans at about age 13 in his homeland with the help of his uncle who owned a machine shop. Mannette would sneak oil barrels off the U.S. naval base at night, which he would pound into drums. The Trinidad government kept destroying his craft, accusing him of being a gangster and telling him he was nothing but trouble. Mannette left the island to live in the United States in 1967.
In 1963, Mannette visited the United States when the Navy brought him here to build a steel drum ensemble. Now the Navy has a band that uses only Mannette signature series drums, which are the rarest and highest quality steel drums in the world, according to Peck.
Although Mannette’s drums are famous in other parts of the world, they are not yet sold in Trinidad. Recently Mannette has been exploring the idea of moving back to Trinidad permanently to perform and teach the art of pan building, tuning and arranging.
To make contributions to the Adopt-A-Drum-Project, call Peck or J.C. Combs, professor of percussion, at 978-3103. Donations also can be made through e-mail, wsuperc@collegeclub.com; or by mail, Adopt-A-Drum-Project, College of Fine Arts, Wichita State University, 1845 Fairmount, Wichita, KS, 67260-0151.
