MQI supporting the arts at Princess Margaret Secondary

The Princess Margaret Secondary School is getting help from McEnearney Quality Inc (MQI).

The multi-brand automotive dealer is helping the school’s Music and Fine Arts Department secure equipment for the Steel Pan Orchestra of the St.Philip-based education institution.

Administrative Assistant in the New Car Sales Department at McEnearney Quality Inc.,(MQI) Clintona Norville, in handing over a cheque to music teacher Toni Cole in the new Kia Showroom at MQI on Tuesday, said it was an investment in the young people of Barbados, as well as part of the company’s social responsibility to the community in which it serves.

“It is also part our continuing outreach programme and our social and cooperate responsibility of giving back to the community and assisting the school,” Norville told the gathering made up of teachers and students of the school and the orchestra.

Music teacher Toni Cole, in thanking MQI, said the assistance would greatly assist the school in the development of the Music Department as interest in pan music is high among students.

“This initiative will greatly ease some the pressures we are under due to the lack of funds as we work against odds and not being able to do more for the students as we also want to provide space for the equipment,” Cole added.

The teacher said too, that she hopes that more of Corporate Barbados would come to the aid of the school and assist the music department to reach it’s goals of taking the development of the steel orchestra to the next level.

Another music teacher, Paul Forde echoed similar sentiments, adding that the initiative taken by MQI is a boost to the efforts of the school and its ongoing efforts at raising the standard and quality of the music product.

“We would like to take on more music dates and show off our band, but we are restricted in our development under the existing conditions and this assistance from MQI would assist us in our efforts,” Forde explained.

Steel pans were created in Trinidad in the 1930s, but steel pan history can be traced back to the enslaved Africans who were brought to the islands during the 1700s.

They carried with them elements of their African culture including the playing of hand drums which became the main percussion instruments in the annual Trinidad carnival festivals.

The modern pan is a chromatically pitched percussion instrument made from 55 gallon industrial drums that formerly contained chemicals.

Hammered into the shiny metal surface is a series of dents, each one creates a different note, subtly different from the ones around it, according to their position and size. Steel pan musicians are called pannists.