Steel panist
Vanessa
Headley
Global
- Vanessa Alexandra
Headley has
been playing
the steelpan,
the national
instrument of
her native Trinidad
and Tobago since
the age of four
(4). She
placed first
in the Caribbean
Secondary Examinations
Music Exam in
2004 and later received
a three-year
academic scholarship
from the Music
Literacy Trust
of Trinidad
and Tobago and
pursued a Bachelor
of Arts in the
Musical Arts
at the University
of the West
Indies (UWI),
St. Augustine,
Trinidad.
Now aged twenty-one,
Miss Headley
has won over
twenty-two music
festival championships.
She has performed
on all the instruments
of the steelpan
family, but
her instruments
of choice are
the Double Seconds
and the Extended
Seconds (an
innovation of
Master steelpan
builder and
tuner Bertrand
Kelman).
Because of her
commitment to
showcasing these
instruments
she also performs
with four sticks
(mallets).
Vanessa Headley
has been composing
and arranging
since the age
of fourteen
and has won
first place
for her compositions
in the University
of the West
Indies Musica
Nova composition
festival.
After a successful
three-year stint
in arranging
for her band
Golden Hands
Steel Orchestra,
in the National
Junior Panorama
of Trinidad
and Tobago,
Vanessa set
her sights on
the National
Panorama arena.
Her arrangement
of Shadow’s
Dingolay
earned
the first-time
participants,
Golden Hands,
second place
in a field of
forty-two small
steel orchestras.
Vanessa is the
CEO of the prestigious
Golden Hands
Steel Orchestra
and has represented
Trinidad and
Tobago, not
only in Antigua
& Barbuda, but
also in Dominica,
Martinique,
and the USA
at Howard University
and the University
of Delaware.
She has conducted
steelpan workshops
in her native
Trinidad and
Tobago as well
as at the Delaware
School of the
Performing Arts
and the McCollum
High School,
in Austin, Texas.
In 2008 Ms.
Headley was
the star soloist
at one of the
main showcase
concerts of
the Percussive
Arts International
Convention (PASIC)
- also in Austin,
Texas.
Her role was
central to the
presentation
of Golden Hands’
original steelband
musical “The
Rainmakers.”
Click
here
for more on
Vanessa
Headley
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