CHS Steel, the Catonsville High School Steel Band, perennial favorites at Rock Hall FallFest returns to the Eastern Shore for a full concert at the Rock Hall Volunteer Fire Company hall on Rock Hall Ave. in Rock Hall, Maryland on Saturday March 14 at 7:00 pm. Admission is $10. The concert is sponsored by the Mainstay and proceeds will benefit the Mainstay and the Rock Hall Volunteer Fire Company.
Celebrating its 24nd anniversary, CHS Steel, the Catonsville High School Steel Band, was founded in 1991 and for seven years was the only school steel drum program in the state of Maryland. From a four-piece ensemble, the band has grown to its present size of 25 musicians.
Formed as a means for students to study and perform music from a culture other than their own, the band shares the music of Trinidad and Tobago with audiences throughout the Maryland region. Over 25 performances are presented annually in settings as diverse as school assemblies, jazz festivals, university conferences, state and national conventions of music educators, community festivals, church and synagogue social events and services, and on the back of a flat-bed truck in the local Catonsville Fourth of July Parade.
Their annual mid-day slot at Rock Hall FallFest is always the best attended of any FallFest event. Hundreds of people crowd together to catch a glimpse of the students and hear the thrilling tropical sounds of the steel drums.
The repertoire of the band ranges from classical to jazz and rock. Emphasis is placed on learning to play calypso and soca, the most popular styles of music heard in the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago.
Most students in the band are also members of the school chorus, orchestra, or band program and represent all grade levels in the school. Two-hour rehearsals are held after school three days every week. Each year, auditions are held for the few open positions in the band. None of the students in the band have had prior experience playing steel drums.
The band has been featured in articles in the Baltimore Sun, Baltimore Magazine, and Newsday from Port of Spain, Trinidad.
Through the efforts of the Mainstay’s Director, Tom McHugh, the band was introduced to the organizers of the Berks County Jazz Festival in Reading, Pennsylvania. Over the years, the band has performed at Festival concerts with jazz composer and pan master, Andy Narell, pannist Robert Greenidge of the Jimmy Buffett Band, and David Samuels with the Caribbean Jazz Project.
Each year, an internationally-known steelpan guest artist is invited to Catonsville to rehearse with the band for four days then present a concert. In just two weeks, on March 27, Trinidadian steel pan recording artist, music arranger, and steel band leader, Ken “Professor” Philmore, will return to Catonsville to perform on the CHS Steel Guest Artist Concert.
The Mainstay (Home of Musical Magic) is the friendly informal storefront performing arts center on Rock Hall’s old time Main Street. For information and reservations call the Mainstay at 410-639-9133. More information is also available at the Mainstay’s website https://www.mainstayrockhall.org.
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