Sama­ki Fe­li­cian

Free­lance Cor­re­spon­dent

When sev­en-year-old Adam Bartholomew sat be­side his grand­moth­er at the pi­ano for his first les­son, he had no idea that mu­sic and the steel­pan in par­tic­u­lar would one day car­ry him to the halls of Har­vard and Berklee Col­lege of Mu­sic.

To­day, at just 22 years old, this Trinidad and To­ba­go na­tive is bal­anc­ing a dou­ble aca­d­e­m­ic life be­tween Har­vard, where he’s pur­su­ing a de­gree in Mol­e­c­u­lar and Cel­lu­lar Bi­ol­o­gy, and Berklee, where he’s study­ing Film Scor­ing.

But per­haps Bartholomew’s most pow­er­ful lega­cy to date isn’t on pa­per; it’s mu­si­cal. In 2022, he co-found­ed the Har­vard Col­lege Steel Pan En­sem­ble, in­tro­duc­ing the na­tion­al in­stru­ment of T&T to one of the world’s most pres­ti­gious uni­ver­si­ties.

And in a po­et­ic echo of na­tion­al pride and ex­cel­lence, he car­ries a sur­name shared by one of T&T’s most dec­o­rat­ed med­ical minds, Courte­nay Fe­lix Bartholomew (1931–2021). A pi­o­neer­ing physi­cian and sci­en­tist, Courte­nay Bartholomew di­ag­nosed the first case of AIDS in the Eng­lish-speak­ing Caribbean, found­ed the Med­ical Re­search Foun­da­tion of T&T, served as the first pro­fes­sor of med­i­cine at UWI, and was award­ed both the Cha­co­nia Gold Medal and hon­orary fel­low­ships from pres­ti­gious Roy­al Col­leges.

Like him, this new gen­er­a­tion Bartholomew, grand­son of the late pro­fes­sor, is com­mit­ted to ex­cel­lence through a dif­fer­ent medi­um, but with the same na­tion­al spir­it.

Born in­to a sup­port­ive home, Bartholomew cred­its much of his artis­tic foun­da­tion to his grand­moth­er, who was a long­time mu­sic teacher at St Mon­i­ca’s.

“I start­ed pi­ano at age sev­en,” he re­called. “It was some­thing I asked for. I would go to my grand­moth­er every week for lessons, and my par­ents sup­port­ed me ful­ly by tak­ing me there each time.”

Though he grew up in a house­hold where mu­sic was al­ways play­ing, it was at Sina­tra School where Bartholomew first en­coun­tered the steel­pan, thanks to mu­sic teacher Racia Ed­wards. That con­nec­tion deep­ened at Fa­ti­ma Col­lege, where her fa­ther, Roy Ed­wards, taught him not on­ly to play pan but to arrange and com­pose for pan en­sem­bles. “I went from be­ing taught by a daugh­ter to be­ing taught by her fa­ther,” he ex­plained.

In Form 4 at Fa­ti­ma, Bartholomew met a stu­dent named Luke Walk­er who had got­ten in­to the joint Har­vard-Berklee pro­gramme. That plant­ed the idea in his mind.

“I’ve al­ways had two pas­sions, sci­ence and mu­sic, and that was the per­fect com­bi­na­tion,” he said.

He pur­sued that goal re­lent­less­ly, and now, five years lat­er, he’s on track to earn a Bach­e­lor’s in Bi­ol­o­gy from Har­vard and a Mas­ter’s in Mu­sic from Berklee.

Dur­ing Har­vard’s First-Year In­ter­na­tion­al Ori­en­ta­tion, Bartholomew met British stu­dent Eliz­a­beth Ben­nett. In con­ver­sa­tion, they re­alised the school had no steel­pan group and de­cid­ed to fix that.

It was no small feat. The duo worked tire­less­ly to get the group recog­nised as an of­fi­cial stu­dent or­gan­i­sa­tion, find re­hearsal space, and source in­stru­ments.

“We pret­ty much need­ed to do this on our own,” Bartholomew ad­mit­ted.

Even­tu­al­ly, they found a re­hearsal home in the old squash courts at Adams House and se­cured spon­sor­ship from MITKO, a steel­pan man­u­fac­tur­er. Four pans were do­nat­ed, and fam­i­ly mem­bers chipped in to cov­er the rest.

The en­sem­ble launched of­fi­cial­ly in Sep­tem­ber 2024, and by then, Bartholomew had al­ready gained na­tion­al recog­ni­tion for pro­duc­ing a doc­u­men­tary on his un­cle Bar­ry’s 1990s jazz pan group named Panazz. That film went on to win the Peo­ple’s Choice Award at the Trinidad and To­ba­go Film Fes­ti­val, fur­ther fu­elling his mis­sion to el­e­vate pan.

“We be­gan to achieve our goal of spread­ing the beau­ty of the steel­pan in­stru­ment to all of cam­pus.”

Now in his fi­nal year, Bartholomew is plan­ning a 2026 tour to Trinidad with the Har­vard Col­lege Steel Pan En­sem­ble. The goal? Col­lab­o­rate with lo­cal mu­si­cians, vis­it schools, and stage a grand con­cert.

“We hope to in­spire stu­dents by show­ing them that steel­pan, our na­tion­al in­stru­ment, is at Har­vard,” he said. “If pan could be in Har­vard, it could be in every school.”

The trip is al­so meant to be ed­u­ca­tion­al for the en­sem­ble’s mem­bers. “I want them to ex­pe­ri­ence the cul­ture that came from and see the way of life in Trinidad and To­ba­go.”

De­spite the work­load, Bartholomew still finds time for cre­ativ­i­ty, though it’s not al­ways easy.

“Find­ing time to fit in re­lax­ation and a so­cial life is very im­por­tant … but I don’t al­ways get much of it,” he said. “Still, I just have to push through be­cause I know this won’t last for­ev­er.”

He ac­knowl­edges the emo­tion­al chal­lenge of study­ing abroad, too.

“You go from hav­ing a whole com­mu­ni­ty who knows you in Trinidad to know­ing no­body.”

But things got bet­ter. Through mu­sic and mean­ing­ful friend­ships, Bartholomew found his foot­ing.

“Now I’m at a point where I’m hap­py with how things are.”

Bartholomew dreams of con­tin­u­ing to tell sto­ries through mu­sic, film, and cul­ture. Whether he’s pro­duc­ing a doc­u­men­tary or com­pos­ing a score, his goal re­mains root­ed in na­tion­al pride.

“I want to keep work­ing on projects that show­case the best of Trinidad and To­ba­go and what we are ca­pa­ble of.”

And his ad­vice to young peo­ple?

“Fol­low your pas­sion and don’t let peo­ple dis­cour­age you. Don’t let them tell you it’s not pos­si­ble. It is.”