Ray Holman will be special guest at the Spring Concert of the Southern Miss Steel Pan Orchestra, April 21 and 22 at 7:30 pm and 2 pm respectively.
The concert will be held at the Mannoni Performing Arts Center on the Southern Miss Campus in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. The Southern Miss Steel Pan Orchestra(SOMISPO) was founded in 1994 by Dr. John Wooton, as a six-piece ensemble.
The Band has since grown to 23, and now consists of six tenor pans, two sets of double tenors, guitar pans, cello pans and tenor bass pans, and three sets of double seconds and six bass pans.
The large group is now called the Southern Miss Steel Pan Orchestra, or SOMISPO, and the smaller travelling group is the Southern Miss Steel Band Combo. Both perform in festivals, parties, and formal concerts. Their repertoire is traditional calypso and soca, pop, classical, Cuban and jazz.
The group recently recorded a CD with Andy Narell, featuring music, the Southern Miss fight song (soca style) and Two Brazilian Steel Dances by Ney Roasauro.
Apart from Ray and Narell, other artists that have performed with SOMISPO include: Tom Miller; Robert Greenidge; Jeff Narell; Ellie Mannette; Ney Rosauro; and The U.S. Navy Steel Band.
For booking information please contact Dr. John Wooton at (601)266-4993 or John.Wooton@usm.edu.
Admission for the spring concert is $10 and tickets can be purchased by calling (601)266-5418.