The Miami University Steel Band – Developing a Tradition of Excellence
The Miami University Steel Band was founded in 1994 with a complement of ten players and six instruments. Under the leadership of founder and director Chris Tanner, the program has grown to encompass two separate ensembles with a combined enrollment of over seventy members, and twenty-five university-owned instruments. The ensemble is one of the most active in Southwest Ohio, performing annually in diverse settings such as on-campus concerts, regional performing arts venues, school outreach programs and summer park concerts. The goal of the Miami University Steel Band is to present excellent performances of quality literature in the steel band idiom, with a special emphasis on original music by contemporary composers.The Miami University Steel Band has released three compact disc recordings through Pan Ramajay Productions, with a fourth offering slated for Fall 2009. These recordings feature original music from Tanner and producer Tom Miller, as well as from high-profile steel band composers such as Ray Holman, Andy Narell and Phil Hawkins. Aside from recordings, appearances at prestigious events are also propelling the Miami University Steel Band onto a national stage. The ensemble appeared at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention in 2005 and 2002, and headlined the Virginia PANorama steel band festival in 2008 and 2003.
As the art form of pan grows in the 21st century, the Miami University Steel Band aspires to be one of the leading programs in exemplifying excellence in performance, and in expanding the repertory for this unique ensemble.
About the Director
CHRIS TANNER (D.M.A., West Virginia University, 2000) is an associate professor of music at Miami University and the founder and director of the Miami University Steel Band. He first became interested in world music as an undergraduate student at West Virginia University, where he studied steel pan performance and construction with Ellie Mannette, an internationally recognized leader in the construction and tuning of steel drum instruments, and African percussion with Phil Faini.
In the steel band idiom, Tanner is active as a performer, educator, and composer/arranger. He has served as a guest clinician or performing artist at numerous festivals, workshops, high schools and universities. He is an eight-time commissioned composer/arranger, and his works are published through both Pan Ramajay Productions and Panyard, Inc. Most notably, Tanner is the author of The Steel Band Game Plan: Strategies for Starting, Building and Maintaining Your Pan Program, published in December 2006 by Rowman & Littlefield Education under the auspices of MENC. This comprehensive resource, covering all fundamental topics relating to the development of a steel band program, is the first of its kind to be published through a major firm.
In addition to directing the Steel Band program at Miami University, Tanner is an instructor for The Diverse Worlds of Music, a lecture course focusing on non-Western music. He visited the country of Ghana in 1995, and he has also studied West African music with master teacher and scholar Dr. Paschal Younge. He has served as an artist-in-residence on numerous occasions at schools in the Cincinnati area, teaching both steel pan and West African drumming.