2 weeks ago
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Lead Editor-Newsgathering
From Laventille to London, Port-of-Spain to Paris, Michelle Huggins-Watts has carried the rhythm of the people of Trinidad and Tobago to the world through the steelpan.
Standing behind the national instrument, she’s a phenomenal player. Standing in front of the steelpan, with her back to the crowd, she’s a winning arranger. As the international community celebrates World Steelpan Day tomorrow, WE magazine sat down with Huggins-Watts to talk reflect on a steelpan career that dates back to the late 1980s.
As a woman, her career in the pan industry has been one of many firsts but has also been one of much strife. Ultimately, it has been one of tremendous successes.
However, her will to play the pan was first stunted by her mother. When Huggins-Watts entered St Francois Girls’ College, she told her mother of her interest in playing the steelpan. Her mother was not ready to send her daughter into a panyard. But the desire stayed with Huggins-Watts. It wasn’t until Form Four that she was able to start learning the instrument at her secondary school.
She formed a lifelong bond with the steelpan—an instrument that would take her around the world, whose legacy she would protect, and whose future she would help shape, inspiring generations of women along the way.
“I did not dream of becoming an arranger or a steelband captain or anything like that. But I guess you do things out of passion and love, and people observe your work, and this is how I was asked to become captain of Phase II Pan Groove by Boogsie,” she recalled in an interview with us last week.
Her life in arranging steelpan music would start right where her roots were. While she laboured in the Schools Steelbands Music Festival with love, Valley Harps Steel Orchestra was watching her work. They would approach her to lead their band in 2002 for the music festival, then subsequently stay on for Panorama in 2003–her first opportunity to arrange for a conventional adult band.
Her life in the steelpan would take her from playing to leading, but it was a long time coming. In 1998, as a teacher at Trinity College, she took Woodbrook and Trinity College combined, WoodTrin, to the Junior Panorama competition, and they won the title.
However, being a female arranger hasn’t always been an easy road for Huggins-Watts. While she feels she hasn’t received pushback from males in the industry, she has often struggled with pressuring herself.
She said, “I think the challenges were within me. It’s because I really felt that coming into this arena, which is a male-dominated arena, I needed to really come good or not come at all. So, I always challenged myself to produce music that would not just satisfy my musical appreciation but also the ears of the listeners. When I arrange, I would try my best to ensure that every section competes with the other.”
Her work in arranging steelpan music would take her to where no other woman has gone before. In 2011, Huggins-Watts led Valley Harps to Panorama victory in the medium band category. She became the first woman arranger to win a Panorama title.
Now, she is not only respected in T&T but also internationally. “The journey has been one where lots of doors have been opened for me in terms of travel, conducting steelband workshops in all regions of France, adjudicating here, regionally in the US. It’s just ongoing. I see myself now, too, as being able to give back to the art form.”
Huggins-Watts has sat on several committees, such as the National Steering Committee formed through the Ministry of Trade and Industry, where they were tasked to develop a governance framework for the steelband art form.
While some local citizens may think the national instrument remains the most popular in T&T, Huggins-Watts sees it differently. She said, “It is a world instrument. It is appreciated and adopted, and I will dare say in some countries, much more appreciated than we do here in T&T because they recognise the worth and value of this and the art form itself. It’s not just about playing the pan; it’s about changing lives.”
She truly believes the steelpan has all the ingredients necessary to transform lives. Huggins-Watts added, “Coming to the panyard, we don’t realise that after coming, working together, learning together, that in itself is an education. The panyard is exactly an extension of the classroom. What takes place in the classroom? Teaching and learning.
“How do you get children to learn? You may have children of different backgrounds. Some may come with learning disabilities that have not, may or may not have been recognised and diagnosed, and so on, but you have to find ways, different learning strategies, to get them to learn. It’s the same thing in the panyard. Some may come with a natural ability to absorb music and perform well. Some may be, as we say, hard-headed, but you have to find ways to teach them.”
In 2003, when the United Nations declared August 11 as World Steelpan Day, it filled her heart with joy. She said, “It’s a pore-raising sentiment, because when you look at the history of the art form, it was always a struggle, and this is an instrument that was deemed to be associated, I should say, with the outcasts of society, never to be played in a church.”
Much like the steelpan itself, Huggins-Watts has blazed a trail for women in the art form. Her journey continues to inspire young girls in schools and panyards across the country, showing them that they too can follow in her footsteps.
English (US) ·