UW Pan Band Concert Thursday

The University of Wyoming Department of Music’s Pan Band performs a free concert Thursday, Dec. 4, at 7:30 p.m. in the Buchanan Center for the Performing Arts concert hall.

The group plays Caribbean steel drums, and the program will include familiar Brazilian songs, new tropical compositions and Christmas carols. The featured guest artist and composer will be Emily Lemmerman, who owns the Barracuda Steel Drums Company in Austin, Texas. She apprenticed in West Virginia with the renowned “father” of the modern steel drum, Ellie Mannette, a Trinidad native.

“Unique in the pan world, Lemmerman is the first woman to tune for the Panorama festival in Trinidad, the birthplace of steel drums, and is also the first foreigner to tune for the festival’s large band category,” says Pan Band Director Stephen Barnhart. “She has played in many Panoramas, from London to New York to Trinidad, including appearances with the Invaders Steel Orchestra -- the band that Dr. Mannette founded in 1937.”