Global Musics Ensembles

BRAZILIAN MUSIC ENSEMBLE

Special Guest: Amiel Ang, percussion  
Course TA: Andrew Janzen 
Teacher: Joe Cullen

PROGRAM NOTES

Japanese Taiko Drumming Ensemble

Sanmyaku Daiko 

Literally meaning ‘Mountain Range’, this piece envisions three groups of drummers from a distance, calling back and forth to each other from the mountaintops.

Fuyu no Michi (Winter Road)

This is a modern composition by virtuoso taiko player Shuichi Hidano. In this piece, two groups of performers duel each other with interweaving rhythms.

Ogi Matsuri Daiko

Ogi is a small port town located on the southern part of Sado Island in Niigata Prefecture. The local villagers play this piece during Ogi Matsuri (festival) every August on taiko attached to large mobile carts.  

Zoku (Tribe)

This piece was composed by Leonard Eto (former artistic director of the renowned Kodo drummers) in 1989.  It has since become a popular and iconic performance piece for many taiko groups throughout Japan and across the world.

Steel Pan Ensemble

Chutney Bacchanal

This classic calypso/soca was a favourite for the 1996 Carnival in Trinidad. The title is indicative of the exciting blend of Indo-Trinidadian music that has become very popular in Trinidad, especially since the mid-1990’s. This arrangement was done by “PanMan Pat” McNeilly, the first steel pan teacher for Etobicoke schools. Pat came to Canada with a Trinidadian steel band for Canada’s Expo ‘67 and decided to stay in Canada, performing and starting up five different steel pan programs, as well as several community steel bands that are still active today.

I Gotta Feeling

This song was hugely successful for the Black-Eyed Peas in 2009,  occupying the number one spot on the Billboard charts for 14 weeks and being the longest-running number one single that year.  In March 2011, it became the first song in digital music history to sell over 7 million digital copies in the United States. The original percussive keyboard part of the song translates well to the steel pans. 

Ashley

Liam Teague is not only a world-class steel pan virtuoso and recording artist, but also Head of Steel Pan Studies at Northern Illinois University. He has promoted and commissioned many pieces of all styles and is well known for his passion towards using steel pan in classical music, and for a multitude of instrument combinations with  steel pan in university recital repertoire. He has also done zoom calls with the UofT steel pan ensemble during Covid and is always very  supportive of our program here. Liam generously loaned us this arrangement to perform this evening.

Eine Kleine Nachtmusik

This classic by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is one his most recognized compositions, the title meaning “a little night music”. It was completed in 1787 but not published until 1827. This arrangement was done by Martin Neuland, a recently retired steel band teacher with the TDSB. This will show you the versatility of the steel pan in classical music.

Uptown Funk Party

This arrangement is a blend of two songs: “Uptown Funk” by Bruno Mars and Mark Ronson,  and “What Happens In the Party” by Barbadian Soca artist Rupee. “Uptown Funk”  was hugely successful for Bruno Mars, and combines funk, pop, soul and disco styles. Rupee’s song is a good example of a classic Soca song. Rupee’s songs have been used for many Caribana-type festivals in Canada, the United States,  and Barbados, where they have won several road-march competitions. 

Pan in “A” Minor

Pan in A Minor is one of the “classics” of steel pan, performed by steel bands from Trinidad to Switzerland and everywhere in between. Lord Kitchener won the Trinidad road march competition ten times between 1965 and 1976, more times than any other calypsonian. Listen for the chromatic runs and exciting rhythmic variations, a requisite in Trinidad Panorama arrangements.

BIOGRAPHIES

Kiyoshi Nagata

Kiyoshi Nagata is the founder and artistic director of Nagata Shachu, Canada's preeminent professional taiko group.  Formed in 1998, Kiyoshi has led the ensemble in tours across North America and Italy in addition to major engagements in Lebanon and Mexico.  As a performer, he has collaborated with both local and international artists as part of the group's annual three-concert season, and his original compositions have been featured on the ensemble's numerous CDs and DVDs.

Kiyoshi has been performing taiko in a career that spans four decades and has taught taiko at the U of T Faculty of Music since 1998. He also taught a public taiko course at the Royal Conservatory of Music from 2003 to 2011, and helped to found two community taiko groups in Burlington and Toronto.  He is regularly invited by universities and taiko groups to present workshops and lectures. As a solo artist, he has composed and performed taiko music for dance, theatre, film and radio and continues to collaborate with artists from all genres of music including traditional Japanese instrumentalists.

Joe Cullen 

Joe Cullen is an Assistant Professor of music education at the University of Toronto and has been teaching the steel pan ensemble since it started in 2006. He is also the Head of Arts at West Humber Collegiate, where he teaches steel drum, guitar, band, and drumline courses.  

He is an active steel pan soloist, steel band arranger, and was the steel pan columnist for the Canadian Music Educators Journal for ten years. He regularly advises new steel pan teachers across the TDSB. In addition to touring Canada with the Naval Reserve National Band as a steel pan and drum set soloist, Joe was the leader for the only Canadian Forces Steel Pan Combo, with HMCS YORK Naval Reserve unit from 1996-2007. 

Joe has been a festival adjudicator for the TCDSB Steel Band Festival, Ovation Music Festival, and the  Caribana Pan Alive competition several times. He has taught for many summer camps including the Yamaha Power Music Camp, CAMMAC music camp, St. Andrew’s College, and has regularly taught steel pan and drumline for the Iqaluit Music camp in Nunavut. He was awarded Life Member status for the Naparima Alumni Association of Canada (a long standing Trini-Canadian Group), and was awarded an Honourary Member of Pan Trinbago, the world governing body for steel pan.  

The University of Toronto Steel Pan Ensemble was started in 2006 to provide music students with an opportunity to learn to play the steel pan and perform pieces from many different genres and styles, including calypso, reggae, soca, pop and classical. Students explore and research pan festivals like Panorama, Pan Alive, Carnival and Pan Is Beautiful. They also learn about the instrument’s history and evolution, the people who invented the various types of steel pans, and pan soloists from around the world.