The steel drum is just such a wonderful instrument. I truly believe in what it can do for the player, what it can do for the audience, and I thought that there was a need in the music program to add this kind of unique ensemble, said Joan Wenzel, Dover High Steel Band director, reflecting on the groups beginning 20 years previous. The steel drums are about relationships, they build community and it truly is an art form.
I played in the steel band while attending the University of Akron, so after being at Dover Middle School for two years as its band director, which is still my main focus, a group of interested students and I met in the basement of the high school, and that is how the steel band started. I had great support from the beginning, not only from the students, but from the superintendent at the time, Fred Delphia, the then high school principal and Steve Stroup, the high school band director at the time as well.
On Feb. 19, the Dover High Steel Band held its 15th annual Pantasia concert. The main focus of the night was on highlighting the 20th anniversary of the steel band. Along with a DVD showing pictures from the last two decades, which ran before the concert, a large group of steel band alumni took the stage to once again play together.
Pantasia came about because in 1995 the group was chosen to perform in Columbus at an event held by the Ohio Music Education Association, then the following year we were invited to perform in Chicago at the Midwest Clinic. Before we left we decided to hold a concert to sort of practice, said Wenzel. Then, the following February, 1997, we held an open concert that Presidents Day weekend. We had a guest performer come and work with the students, but there wasnt a name for the concert. So Tom Fox, whose son was in the band at the time, came up with the name for it, Pantasia, and the name stuck, even after all these years, and the program continues to grow. Having the alumni back was a gift. I could see the teenager back in their faces, and to learn that the group and the instrument had such a great impact on their lives was great.
From the first practice in the high school basement, the kids became committed and learned the power of the instrument. Since then, the school district has been completely supportive of us, the kids have supported it and the community has loved it; the support has been beyond positive. The amount of performances we do throughout the community is a testament to the communitys embrace of the group. All of this goes back to the power of the instrument, the steel drum.
