06/21/2024
Friday 6/28 these folks will be entertaining us on the lawn at Winslow Green from 12-1PM.
I hope everyone comes out to enjoy the show!
STEEL DRAGONS STEEL ORCHESTRA –
BAND AND ORGANIZATION BACKGROUND
Hailing from two suburbs of Seattle, the Steel Dragons Steel Orchestra is the intermediate level youth ensemble of Steel Magic Northwest, a 501(c)(3) non-profit founded and directed by steelpan artist and composer Gary Gibson. The 24-piece group is comprised of kids from Edmonds and Kent, WA, ranging in age from 12 to 18. By the time they make it into this group, they have already been playing steelpan for a couple of years in the organization's beginning group. The 2023-24 version of this group is the tightest and most musically polished in the group's six-year history. Audiences who hear them perform often
react with amazement. Their repertoire includes many styles of music, including familiar Caribbean styles like
calypso and soca, but also classical, pop, afro- Cuban and Brazilian styles, television and movie theme songs, and just about any other style you can imagine. In addition to the
numerous annual local events on the group’s regular performance schedule, the Steel Dragons have toured most of Washington state.
The group is directed by artistic director Gary Gibson, a well-known name in the steelpan
world. Gibson has recorded four critically acclaimed albums of original progressive music
featuring the steelpan, is the winner of two out of three categories of Trinidad’s “Symphony & Steel” composition contest, and is a winner (with the Exodus Steel Orchestra) of Trinidad’s “Panorama National Steel Band Championship.” He is known
internationally as a clinician and concert/recording artist, and makes numerous trips each year to adjudicate at steel band festivals or be a guest concert artist with college and high
school steel band groups around the country.
Gibson founded Steel Magic Northwest in order to duplicate and build on the best examples of similar programs he has worked with in his travels around the United States.
The son of two social workers, he felt the importance of giving back to his own community, giving kids and lifelong-learning adults a positive focus and the opportunity to
grow and create something unique and uplifting, and to create an organization and ensembles that the community can be proud of and which can serve as a national model
