Ho­n­our­ing the Life and Lega­cy of Ur­su­la Tu­dor

The Man­age­ment and Mem­ber­ship of the Des­per­a­does Steel Or­ches­tra is sad­dened to an­nounce that Ms. Ur­su­la Tu­dor, our longest stand­ing Fe­male play­er died last night (Ju­ly 21, 2021).

Ms. Ur­su­la who had been a mem­ber of the Or­ches­tra since 1970 up un­til the time of her pass­ing served a stel­lar 51 years of mem­ber­ship with the band. She was well-known with­in the steel pan fra­ter­ni­ty as the longest stand­ing fe­male play­er in his­to­ry and per­formed in all but one Panora­ma (2018 ow­ing to a ve­hic­u­lar ac­ci­dent). Dur­ing her tenure, Ms. Ur­su­la served as a Sec­tion Leader for the Tenor Sec­tion for a num­ber of years and al­so served for a pe­ri­od of six years as the Trea­sure of the Band.

Ms. Ur­su­la (Queen Moth­er as many of us would call her) has made an in­deli­ble mark on who we are to­day and we will keep her lega­cy of great ser­vice, com­mit­ment and love of steel pan and band alive and well. She was a true Ma­tri­arch and role mod­el to us all.

The Tran­si­tion Team ex­pects to make fur­ther an­nounce­ments re­gard­ing fu­ner­al arrange­ments co­or­di­nat­ed with her fam­i­ly in com­ing days.

The Des­per­a­does Steel Or­ches­tra Man­age­ment and Mem­ber­ship wish­es to pay trib­ute to ho­n­our and give thanks to Ur­su­la Tu­dor for her many years of stead­fast com­mit­ment to the Des­per­a­does Steel Or­ches­tra and the Com­mu­ni­ty of Laven­tille.

Our deep­est con­do­lences and prayers con­tin­ue to go out to her fam­i­ly dur­ing this time as we share in­ti­mate­ly in their loss.