SAN­DRA L BLOOD

mindup.slblood@gmail.com

The Man­nette Acad­e­my of Mu­sic will host its an­nu­al Christ­mas con­cert, Tis the Sea­son, on Sun­day at the Bish­op Anstey High School in Port-of-Spain from 3 pm.

Stu­dents per­form­ing on the steel­pan, gui­tar, vi­o­lin and pi­ano will be fea­tured, in ad­di­tion to guest parang band Del Caribe HD.
Pro­ceeds from the con­cert go to the acad­e­my.

The Man­nette Acad­e­my of Mu­sic was formed in 2017. Ini­tial­ly, it catered to steel­pan and mu­sic the­o­ry stu­dents but has since grown to over 200 stu­dents who learn the vi­o­lin, gui­tar and pi­ano.

Founder and di­rec­tor of the acad­e­my Bar­ry Man­nette, said with their ex­pe­ri­enced tu­tors and ad­vance­ments in tech­nol­o­gy, the acad­e­my has ex­pand­ed be­yond T&T and now has stu­dents in Cana­da, Ger­many, Bel­gium, Aus­tralia, Cos­ta Ri­ca, Puer­to Ri­co, St Lu­cia and the Unit­ed States.

Man­nette, a steel­pan vir­tu­oso, teacher, arranger and di­rec­tor who be­gan play­ing the steel­pan at age 11, is the son of steel­pan vet­er­an Ver­non “Birdie” Man­nette and nephew of the leg­endary Dr El­lie Man­nette.

His stu­dents have achieved a 100 per cent suc­cess rate in the Roy­al Schools of Mu­sic The­o­ry ex­am­i­na­tions.

Man­nette is co-mu­sic di­rec­tor of the North­ern Illi­nois Uni­ver­si­ty All Uni­ver­si­ty Steel­band, a mu­sic tu­tor with North­ern Illi­nois Uni­ver­si­ty Com­mu­ni­ty School of the Arts and is aligned with the As­so­ci­at­ed Board of the Roy­al Schools of Mu­sic, Lon­don. He has toured the world pro­mot­ing pan, and is an award-win­ning soloist.

This year is a spe­cial one for guest artistes Del Caribe, who are re­turn­ing to the stage with re­newed verve and vigour af­ter a hia­tus of a few years.

Man­aged by Nic­hole Cu­pid-Joseph and found­ed in 1999 by Derek Ce­les­tine, Julio Tor­res, Den­nies Fer­ri­er and Mau­rice Nunes, Del Caribe is a lead­ing cross-over band.

Mem­bers in­clude Roger Ce­les­tine (as­sis­tant man­ag­er), Nicole Cas­tro, Michael Bain, Rene Jeat­to, Christo­pher Tronchin and Ko­ran Bal­bosa.

Cu­pid-Joseph said the band has crossed over from its tra­di­tion­al Latin/parang genre and has in­clud­ed so­ca and reg­gae in its quest to “de­liv­er qual­i­ty Caribbean mu­sic and cul­tur­al ex­pe­ri­ences to de­light and en­ter­tain au­di­ences world­wide.”

For more in­fo call 678-0505 or email man­net­tea­cad­e­my­of­mu­sic@gmail.com.