The Rainmakers

The Rainmakers, a musical drama integrating the arts, is scripted by Ms. Franka Hills Headley, artistic director of The Golden Hands Steel Orchestra. Dr. Jeannine Remy, lecturer in Percussion Studies, University of the West Indies (UWI), composed a suite of nine programmatic pieces of music depicting the storyline, illustrated by Nigel Parris.

The caste consists of thirty Golden Hands pannists and twenty musicians from the UWI Percussion Ensemble. UWI's dance instructor Hazel Franco choreographed traditional Carnival dances, added as intermezzos. These dramatize the play, and are portrayed by ten additional actors.

I am executive producer of the dual CD, a subset of Pan in Education,to be released on the Sanch label. Creation and scoring of a repertoire of Musicanova(new music), is an initiative endorsed by The Music Literacy Trust,a benefactor of The Rainmakers.

Golden Hands won seven categories in the recently concluded 2008 Trinidad and Tobago Music Festival, performing excerpts of the music. The entire Rainmakerscontingent has been invited to perform at the feature concertof this year's Percussive Arts Society's international Convention (PASIC) to be held in Austin , Texas in November. Sanch will exhibit its catalogue of cultural products at the event.

As part of a concerted effort to raise some $TT1.25 million necessary for the undertaking, The Rainmakerswill host several fund-raising events, along with concerts at Naparima Bowl and Queen's Hall. Promotional artefacts, including knitwear and limited edition prints, will be available for purchase. I look forward to your support.

Ultra Audio.com
By serendipitous coincidence, I met Jeffrey W. Fritz, editor of the above online magazine in cyberspace, last January. He subsequently invited me to become a contributor. Beginning on All Fools' Day (a fitting concurrence for me!), I will be writing a monthly series, Optimising the Sound of the Song,http://www.ultraaudio.com/features.shtml . Please feel free to send your comments. It is indeed a great honour and privilege for me to be associated with this prestigious magazine. We will all benefit as we strive to hear more.

Simeon L. Sandiford
Managing Director