With a single nod, and an invitation, workshop participants and community members began grabbing drums, cowbells, or whatever they could find, and rushing to the front of the room. The sound of samba music grew with each addition until it shook the wooden floor of the Laborie pan yard. Solos bounced around the group as local individuals and visitors alike made unique contributions to the shared music.
January 12, 2025, marked the final performance of the seventh annual Laborie Steel Pan Workshop in Laborie, St. Lucia. The workshop brings together musicians from around the world to learn and connect through music. Participants spend 11 days on the island rehearsing with Andy Narell, a master of steel pans, attending masterclasses, and experiencing the beauty of St. Lucia.
Since 2020, Jesse Jonathon, the advisor of AHS’s Steel Pan Club, has accompanied the club’s graduating seniors to the workshop.
“To take students to study internationally was the real motivation,” Jonathon said. “[It] just shows them that it’s doable and that… this life is there to be lived.”
This year, 17 local students, teachers, and community members traveled nearly 4,000 miles to attend the workshop. Among them were four members of the Steel Pan Club: junior Thomas FitzMaurice, senior Ava Jones, senior Jack Dixon, and another junior, myself.
The workshop is a chance to gain skills and experiences, but it also provides students with a unique opportunity to connect with people from various parts of the world.
“All the people in Laborie were super nice,” Jones said. “The community was awesome.”
Laborie welcomed us with open arms, and with each song we played, the music brought the workshop participants closer together.
“[Music is] a thing that connects people emotionally,” Jones said. “like someone else knows what you’re going through, knows how you feel.”
Music is a way for people to express themselves and it can help us understand experiences unlike our own.
Community is an essential part of pan music. It isn’t meant to be played or enjoyed alone. A typical steelband includes, at minimum, a few sets of tenor, double second, cello, and bass pans, plus some additional percussion.
“To have this music really come to life, you need at least some community that’s willing to join you in it,” Jonathon said.
The workshop participants, with the support of the Laborie community, definitely brought the music to life. The final performance showcased the five songs they’d been rehearsing together and featured a performance from the town’s local pan band, Laborie Steel Pan.
“[Their] performance was so good!” Jones said. “[They] play a different style of music than we do and it’s really cool to experience that first hand.”
As the performance ended, the final song transitioned into a rhythmic samba piece which grew slowly as workshop participants joined in.
“Nobody taught anybody anything, nobody said to do anything,” Jonathan said.
We just listened to the music and found our place within it.
At that moment, any differences between us had melted away. It didn’t matter who we were, where we were from, or how old we were. We were all musicians, and all that mattered was our shared love of music.
