Yuko Asada is having a bit of a full-circle moment. Nearly a quarter century after her interest in steelpan performance led her to the Caribbean island of Trinidad and Tobago for the annual Panorama Steelband Competition, she’s back. This time, it’s as the first staff member in the history of Northern Illinois University to earn a prestigious Fulbright Fellowship.
Asada, who works as a musical instrument technician is doing her research on steelpan building and tuning. She founded NIU’s Community School of the Arts Steelband in 2012 and directed it until this year.
“I’m researching how technology is implemented in building and tuning steelpans, and the growing need for more builders and tuners in Trindiad and Tobago and worldwide,” she said. “I’m also going to explore how knowledge of the craft is transmitted across generations, and to come up with with a strategy to train, nurture and promote steelpan construction as a sustainable profession.”
While Asada is somewhat new to research, she has some built-in support from a pair of NIU alums. Dr. Mia Gormandy Benjamin is Assistant Professor of Music at The University of Trindiad and Tobago. Gormandy earned her bachelor of music at NIU, where she became the first steelpan performer to win the university’s Concerto Competition. Gormandy Benjamin also earned her master of music in steelpan performance at NIU before going on to earn another M.M. at Florida State University in ethnomusicology.
Also on hand for support for Asada is Akua Leith, himself a Fulbright fellow, who earned his master of music in conducting with an emphasis in steelpan performance at NIU. Leith is the co-founder of MITTCO, which stands for Musical Instruments of Trinidad and Tobago. MITTCO sells and manufacturers steel drums, and part of their challenge is that Trinidad and Tobago does not manufacture steel, so they rely on importing it from as far away as Japan. There is also the challenge of building the pans from sheet steel instead of steel drums.
Through Gormandy Benjmain, Asada will work with students from the University of Trinidad and Tobago, including surveying them on their perceptions of steelpan building and tuning and the likelihood of them pursuing building and tuning as a career. She will also be working with students from the University of the West Indies, the other major university on the island. She has made connections with steelpan organizations and manufacturing organizations and guilds.
Twenty-five years ago, she traveled to the island as a piano major at West Virginia University with a new interest in steelpan to perform. It was there that she first learned about the NIU Steelband who had finished second in the previous year’s World Steelband Music Festival. Asada took notice of the landlocked Midwestern university with a thriving steelpan program. She would go on to earn her master’s degree and performer’s certificate at NIU and continue on, working in the School of Music teaching students to build and tune steelpans.
It’s fitting that she’s back, working on a project aimed to identify ways to keep the art of pan building alive.
