Pan Trin­ba­go has ex­tend­ed greet­ings to mu­si­cians world­wide in recog­ni­tion of World Mu­sic Day, ob­served an­nu­al­ly on June 21. The or­gan­i­sa­tion ac­knowl­edged the glob­al cel­e­bra­tion of mu­sic and paid trib­ute to steel­band mu­si­cians in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

This year’s ob­ser­vance fol­lows the re­cent pas­sage of the Na­tion­al Mu­si­cal In­stru­ment Act, 2024, which of­fi­cial­ly de­clares the Steel­pan as the na­tion­al mu­si­cal in­stru­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go. The leg­is­la­tion con­firms the in­stru­ment’s long­stand­ing role as a na­tion­al sym­bol of iden­ti­ty and uni­ty.

Pres­i­dent of Pan Trin­ba­go Bev­er­ley Ram­sey-Moore is­sued a state­ment on the oc­ca­sion. She high­light­ed the need for con­tin­ued ad­vo­ca­cy and op­por­tu­ni­ties to ad­vance Steel­pan and Steel­band mu­sic across var­i­ous plat­forms.

Ram­sey-Moore stat­ed, “Hap­py World Mu­sic Day. To­day, we take pride in cel­e­brat­ing all mu­si­cians—es­pe­cial­ly our Steel­band mu­si­cians, arrangers, pan­nists, tuners, and those work­ing tire­less­ly be­hind the scenes in the Steel­pan ecosys­tem. Our goal is to ad­vo­cate for the in­clu­sion of Steel­pan and Steel­band mu­sic in all pub­lic spaces, schools, lo­cal fes­ti­vals, and re­gion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al stages. Steel­pan is not on­ly our na­tion­al mu­si­cal in­stru­ment—it is our iden­ti­ty, our pride, and our glob­al voice.”

Pan Trin­ba­go ac­knowl­edged the role of steel­bands in rep­re­sent­ing the coun­try at fes­ti­vals, cul­tur­al ex­changes, and of­fi­cial func­tions around the world. Ac­cord­ing to the or­ga­ni­za­tion, these per­for­mances pro­mote the steel­pan’s unique sound and con­tribute to the growth of cul­tur­al tourism by high­light­ing the cre­ativ­i­ty of Trinidad and To­ba­go.

The or­gan­i­sa­tion al­so rec­og­nized the pi­o­neers of the steel­band move­ment. Pan Trin­ba­go cred­it­ed these in­di­vid­u­als for es­tab­lish­ing the foun­da­tions of what is now a glob­al­ly rec­og­nized art­form. The con­tri­bu­tions of these ear­ly lead­ers were de­scribed as in­stru­men­tal in se­cur­ing the steel­pan’s cur­rent na­tion­al sta­tus.

Pan Trin­ba­go re­it­er­at­ed its com­mit­ment to the de­vel­op­ment, pro­mo­tion, and preser­va­tion of the steel­pan art­form. The or­gan­i­sa­tion em­pha­sised that as the world ac­knowl­edges the uni­fy­ing na­ture of mu­sic, it will con­tin­ue to push for the Steel­pan to be recog­nised and re­spect­ed on all mu­si­cal plat­forms.