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Celebration of Women Tribute To Women In Pan - 2005 |
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Kristen Jones
Kristen Jones
grew up near
Albany, NY in a musical family. She studied piano and cello up through high
school, and was principal cellist in the prestigious Empire State Youth
Orchestra. She attended summer music studies at the Tanglewood Institute,
Hartwick College, and University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She always
assumed she would eventually become a professional cellist--until she
discovered pan! That was at Oberlin College, in Ohio. Since 1980, Oberlin has
had a student-run steelband--first called the Can Consortium, now called
Oberlin Steel.
Kristen
took the "Introduction to Steel Drums" class that the band offered, and
subsequently joined the band. In her sophomore year (1997), she and three
other students went to Trinidad. They played with the Renegades Steel
Orchestra for Panorama, and that experience pretty much sealed the deal for
Kristen (this was the year of Renegades' historic "three-peat" win). The pan
jumbie was born!
Though she has had a little bit of "formal" instruction in arranging for steelband, Kristen learned the most by observing the masters of the art form at work with bands in Trinidad and New York. Specifically, she credits Jit Samaroo, Clive Bradley, Robert Greenidge, Len "Boogsie" Sharpe and Ray Holman. She has also been lucky to work with several talented arrangers within Pan Masters, who both nurtured her development as an arranger, and who were so accepting as to take a chance on this American girl to see what she could do! These arrangers include Lennard Jack Jr, Roger Greenidge, Marc Anatol, Robert "Bullit" Thwaites, Sherwin & Shawn Thwaites.
Kristen has continued
her pilgrimages to Trinidad Panorama. She played with Renegades in 1997,
1998, 2000, 2002 and 2005. She has also attended Ellie Mannette¹s summer pan
workshop in WV, and performs regularly in Brooklyn Panorama with bands such as
Despers USA, Pantonic, and Moods.
© and Courtesy K. Jones
Send your articles and/or pictures
for consideration to
whensteeltalks@hotmail.com
A Celebration of Women
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03.18.05 March 7, 2005 |
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