Ottley Music School

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Faculty: World Music

STEEL DRUMS

Anwar Gabriel Myron Ottley

ANWAR GABRIEL MYRON OTTLEY, M.Mus., Steel Drums, is a product of the Ottley Music School where he took piano lessons with his aunt, Nevilla Ottley since he was in elementary school. For four years, he conducted the 35-voice Black Student Union Chorale of Columbia Union College in Takoma Park, MD in command performances of music of Black Composers from the Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic to the present day, a cappella or with symphony orchestra and/or with band. His degree is in organ performance, after switching from Music Education.

Anwar Ottley joined the Ottley Music School faculty in the summer of 2004, teaching steel drums, after having taught it for two years before at Metropolitan Seventh-day Adventist Church, in the MSSO II. His effective work with the youth and adults of the Ottley Music School camps has produced students who are excited about studying it privately in the school year. The summer 2006 voice, drama and dance camp students pans played for the opening of the University Town Center Towers, with the present and former governors of the State of Maryland in attendance, as well as the Mayor of Hyattsville, and the County Executive of Prince George's County. He was the teacher of the pilot program in Prince George's County Public Schools, teaching the students of Paint Branch Elementary School in College Park at OMS. They now have incorporated that program as part of their core curriculum, being the first and to date, May 2008, the only school in the Prince George's Public School System to have the pans in their school. Besides teaching steel drums at the OMS, he has established an Ottley Music School Steel Ensemble that performed locally. Mr. Ottley is working on his masters at Andrews University.

Steel Drums of Trinidad and Tobago, African Drums

Keith Preddie

Education: Tunapuna Boys' EC School, Nelson Street Boys' RC School, Richmond Street Boys' EC School, Queen's Royal College, Howard University, Washington, DC, USA (B.S. in Electrical Engineering,
1966)

Steel Bands: Mexitones, Invaders, Symphonettes, The Trinidad Steelband of Washington, DCSpecialties: Player (Tenor, Double-Tenor), ArrangerCareer: Preddie left Trinidad for Howard University in 1961 and immediately began managing and arranging for the Trinidad Steelband in Washington, DC. Shortly after his arrival, the band landed the sponsorship of the Texaco Oil Company and players enrolled at Howard University had their tuition paid by the company. In January 1969, the band took part in the Inaugural Parade for President Richard Nixon by providing the music for the U.S. Virgin Islands contingent. The band also appeared at functions that included performances by U.S. entertainers such as Jimmy Durante and the Count
Basie Band. Over the years, the band played at numerous functions attended by U.S. senators and congressmen. As Carnival celebrations expanded all over North America, Preddie arranged for several steelbands in various Panorama competitions in New York and Washington, DC. In 1998, he returned to Trinidad to arrange the Panorama tune for the Tunapuna All Stars. He began making solo appearances in the 1990s, but continued to play with the Trinidad Steelband in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area into the early 2000s.