Without Funding, Curtain May Fall on Lakeland Youth Steel Band Orchestra

Twelve-year-old Brianna Fields was determined to learn how to tap a Caribbean-style melody out of the big, wide belly of a shiny steel drum.

Fields knew members of the Tropical Breeze Steel Orchestra from Paint Branch Elementary School, where she and the band members are students. With the band on summer break, Fields figured she'd make another appeal for lessons. 

So, as she had done so many times before, Fields approached Paint Branch teacher Lydia Laidlow about giving her lessons and starting a band in College Park's Lakeland Community.

It has been three years since Laidlow, a Trinidad native, founded Tropical Breeze, her first steel drum band. She was so impressed with how well the 20 Paint Branch students, ages 7 to 12, whose parents had enrolled them in a summer camp at Ottley Music School, played after just a couple weeks of lessons. With no way to transport all 20 little drummers to and from Ottley - located in Hyattsville - through the school year, Laidlow purchased a set of steel drums from Trinidad and held lessons in her College Park home.

"They had no connection with [Caribbean] music before that," Laidlow said. "They were really enthusiastic because they felt they were doing something that nobody else in the county was doing. There were other steel bands in Prince George's County, but not in their age group."

Fields longed for that same opportunity.

"Brianna had been after me close to a year … 'Miss Laidlow, let's start a band … I want to be in a band,'" Laidlow explained. "She would come to my house and say 'When can I join the band?'"

Laidlow didn't say yes right away. It wasn't until the day she'd gone over to take her niece to a swimming party at the home of Lakeland Neighborhood Watch coordinator Fannie Featherstone that she met more enthusiastic children looking to play. That day, Laidlow was inspired to take on six new students to form the Lakeland Steel Band Orchestra.

Laidlow paid $1,600 out of her own pocket for four weeks of lessons from a local director-arranger from Baltimore, who taught the six, 7-to-10-year-old children the three songs they performed Aug. 3, for Lakeland's National Night Out – their debut concert.

Steel drums, more commonly called steel pans, are the national instrument of Trinidad and Tobago. The chromatically pitched percussion instrument sits on a stand and is played with at least two straight sticks with rubber tips, which vary in size depending on the drum.

Despite enthusiasm from everyone, from the children in the band to the crowd that saw them play at the College Park Community Center during National Night Out, the band is in some serious financial trouble.

"I haven't figured out a way to fund it," Laidlow said. "I would like to keep it going for the children in the community there, but how to fund it is the challenge. [The] Lakeland [band] will only continue if we get sponsorship."

Laidlow said that Tropical Breeze – despite paid invitations to play – is also in jeopardy. Many of the parents who have been supporting the band no longer have the money to continue doing so.

Though the band's funds may be limited, their musical repertoire is rich.

"The Tropical Breeze parents used to pay, but with the economy, music lessons aren't a priority," Laidlow explained. "Tropical Breeze is looking for sponsors, too. That people pay us to play – that's what really has kept us going for the past three years... – I have to find ways to fund it, or the kids are going to have to drop out."

But Featherstone is determined not to let that happen. At National Night Out, she urged members of the community and College Park leaders to make contributions to keep Lakeland's youth steel band going.

"Lakeland, I'm talking about College Park, too, we want to support them financially," Featherstone said. "They haul all of that equipment. They need money to continue … I know that there's some money somewhere … even in these hard times."