Our Workshops

The Orchestra occasionally undertakes workshops for young groups on an ad-hoc basis away from our busy performance schedule. These days’ workshops can only be arranged for weekend dates because of the problems of taking our school aged players out of school for a day. Schools are reluctant to allow players to miss lessons even though they will be working with young school children and gaining valuable experience, as well as passing on the experience of playing steel pan and helping primary schools that are teaching their children about other cultures. In addition we need to obtain performance licences to take the players out of school and these can take up to six weeks from starting the process.

The format adopted over an hour or two, is for a group of about ten young players to give a short concert of around fifteen minutes followed by a longer period of hands on experience supported by a number of senior players.

Some of the players will be at the younger end of our group which helps to show the ease by which steel pan can be learnt and to create a better link with a younger age audience. The overall duration and feel of the workshop can be arranged to suit the needs and plans of the organisation. The various photos from a recent primary school workshop, show the age that players can start to learn pan.

We have all our own equipment and transport to enable us to join you wherever the workshop is held although we are generally limited to the Greater Manchester area. Obviously we have to charge a fee to cover our expenses and contribute to the running of the Orchestra. The fee depends very much on time and distance, and in view of the advance booking must take into account our other potential work commitments, especially in the summer. More detail about workshops can be obtained initially by emailing or completing the contact form.

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