The title Rhapsody in Steel carries two meanings, the first being the obvious reference to the Steelpan, which is the national instrument of Trinidad and Tobago. The second reason refers to the City of Pittsburgh, famously known as the “Steel City,” which the River City Brass Band calls home. The piece takes the listener on a virtuosic journey exploring the broad technical and musical capabilities of the steelpan throughout a variety of musical styles. Rhapsody in Steel was composed in 2023 for steelpan virtuoso Liam Teague and the River City Brass Band under the direction of James Gourlay.

Liam Teague is Professor of Music and Director of Steelpan Studies at Northern Illinois University (NIU), where he also leads the renowned NIU Steelband. Teague is the recipient of an NIU Board of Trustees Professorship Award (2022) and a Presidential Research, Scholarship and Artistry Professor Award (2018). Hailed as the “Paganini of the Steelpan”, his commitment to demonstrating the great musical possibilities of the steelpan has taken him to throughout the world, and he has received many awards from his homeland of Trinidad and Tobago, including the Hummingbird National Award (Silver) and the Ansa McAl Caribbean Award for Excellence. In 2022, The San Fernando City Council honored Teague with the Keys to the City of San Fernando, his hometown in Trinidad and Tobago. He is also the recipient of an Illinois Arts Council (IACA) 2023 Artist Fellowship Award. Teague has won several notable competitions such as the Trinidad and Tobago National Steelband Festival Solo Championship and the Saint Louis Symphony Volunteers Association Young Artist Competition. He has also performed with many diverse ensembles which include National Symphony Orchestra, Taiwan National Symphony, Czech National Symphony, Saint Louis Symphony, Panama National Symphony, Chicago Sinfonietta, Vermeer String Quartet, Avalon String Quartet, Hannaford Street Silver Brass Ensemble, Nexus, Dartmouth Wind Ensemble, Indiana University Symphonic Band, University of Wisconsin-Madison Marching Band, Nutrien Silver Stars Steel Orchestra, and the BpTT Renegades Steel Orchestra. Teague has appeared in concert with Grammy-Award winning musicians Paquito D’Rivera, Dave Samuels, Zakir Hussain and Dame Evelyn Glennie, and has regularly collaborated with NIU colleagues Robert Chappell(multi-instrumentalist) and Faye Seeman(harp) with whom he co-founded the steelpan and harp duo Pangelic. He has also presented and performed at several Percussive Arts Society International Conventions (PASIC) and educational institutions across the globe. Liam Teague has served as an adjudicator for many events including the International Pan Ramajay Competition and Virginia Arts Festival- PANorama Caribbean Music Festival. Many of his compositions and arrangements are published with MaumauMusic, PanPress, RamajayMusic, Wendeln Music Works, and he has commissioned outstanding composers to write for the steelpan, including Michael Colgrass, Jan Bach, Libby Larsen, Andy Akiho, Deborah Fisher Teason, Joey Sellers, Ben Wahlund, Erik Ross, Kevin Bobo, David Gordon, Robert Chappell, Geof Bradfield, Casey Cangelosi, Gustavo Leone, Victor Provost, Etienne Charles, James Gourlay, and Reggie Thomas. He served as steelband director at Birch Creek Music Performance Center in Door County, Wisconsin, and has also taught and performed at the California State University Summer Arts Camp and at the Interlochen Academy for the Performing Arts. Teague is also the author of a steelpan method for beginners published by the Hal Leonard Corporation, the world’s largest publisher of print music.

Yuko Asada is the musical instrument technician at Northern Illinois University (NIU), where she builds and tunes steelpans, teaches steelpan construction, directs the NIU Community School of the Arts Steelband, and serves as the director of steelband at NIU Percussion Camp. She regularly collaborates with engineering students at NIU to bridge the gap between music and technology. Yuko holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from West Virginia University and a Master of Music degree, as well as a Performer’s Certificate in steelpan from NIU, where she gained extensive experience in steelpan building, tuning, and transcription under the mentorship of Dr. Clifford Alexis.

Yuko has taught steelbands at elementary, middle, and high schools, as well as at the university and community levels. She has also presented her work at national and international conferences, including the Young Women’s Conference in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics at Princeton University, the International Conference and Panorama, the World Steelpan Day Conference in Trinidad and Tobago, and the National Society of Steel Band Educators. In addition, she has conducted workshops in the U.S., Japan, Australia, and Thailand.

As a co-founder of Pastiche Steel Ensemble, Virtual Steelband, and Pan in Unity, Yuko has been involved in projects that promote steelpan education and performance. In addition to her work in building, tuning, and teaching, Yuko transcribes panorama arrangements, serves as a clinician and adjudicator for steelpan festivals, and composes music for steelbands and chamber groups. Her original compositions have been featured at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention, and in 2022, she co-produced a mass steelband performance dedicated to Dr. Alexis.

In recognition of her contributions to the steelpan art form, Yuko was featured in the Japanese documentary Gutto Chikyubin (Earth Mail) in 2017 and 2020. In 2022, she was also featured in the Trinidad and Tobago-produced documentary Women in Pan. Her works are published by Percussive Notes, Steel Times, Maumau Music, and Ramajay Productions.

Chris Tanner is the founder and director of the Miami University Steel Band. He is the author of The Steel Band Game Plan: Strategies for Starting, Building and Maintaining Your Pan Program, a comprehensive resource covering all fundamental topics relating to the development of a steel band program, and the first of its kind to be published through a major firm. In 2011 he released his debut recording of original music for steel band and jazz soloists, titled First Impression. He has served as a guest clinician or performing artist at numerous festivals, workshops, high schools and universities. He is a frequently commissioned composer/arranger, and his works are published through Pan Ramajay Productions, Engine Room Publishing, and Panyard, Inc.

The Miami University Steel Band has appeared on three occasions at the prestigious Percussive Arts Society International Convention, and has also twice headlined the annual PANorama Music Festival in Virginia Beach, VA. The ensemble has released five studio recordings since 2001, all produced and distributed by Pan Ramajay Productions.

Tanner serves as President and is a founding member of the National Society of Steel Band Educators (NSSBE), a non-profit organization created in 2016, dedicated to advancing steel band education in the United States. He served as Chair of the Miami University Department of Music from 2017-2023.

Thomas Bough joined the faculty of Northern Illinois University in the fall of 2005 as the Director of Athletic Bands. He also conducts the Wind Symphony and teaches graduate conducting and instrumental arranging. Bough holds MM and DMA degrees in Tuba Performance from Arizona State University, where he was a student of Sam Pilafian and Dan Perantoni. He holds the degree Bachelor of Science in Music Education from Missouri State University, where he was active in both vocal and instrumental music. From 1999 – 2005 Bough served as the Assistant Director of Bands and Professor of Tuba and Euphonium at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois, and from 1992-1999 as the Band Director at Westwood High School in Mesa, Arizona.

Bough’s diverse performance background includes wind bands, brass bands, orchestras, chamber music, jazz bands, Dixieland, the Walt Disney World All American College Band and the Phantom Regiment Drum and Bugle Corps.  He is a Yamaha sponsored artist, and performs on the Yamaha 822 CC tuba and Yamaha 822 F tuba. In this capacity, he serves as a brass consultant and guest instructor with the Cavaliers Drum and Bugle Corps and the Colts Drum and Bugle Corps. He was also an instructor with the Phantom Regiment Alumni Corps in 2016. Bough has contributed nearly twenty articles and hundreds of new music reviews to the Instrumentalist magazine, School Band and Orchestra magazine, and DCI Today, as well as articles to five volumes of the Teaching Music Through Performance series as well as Teaching Music Through Performance in Jazz.

Bough is an active conductor, arranger, composer, clinician, and adjudicator for concert band, marching band, and brass band, with dozens of appearances per year to his credit across the United States. His music is published by Alfred Publications, Cimarron Music and GPG Publications. He has served as a frequent masterclass clinician and/or conductor for the Music For All Summer Symposium and the Music For All National Concert Band Festival for over fifteen years. He has presented masterclasses at the Eastman School of Music, the Crane School of Music, Arizona State University, the University of Michigan, the University of Toledo, and UNC-Greensboro, among many others. Bough has presented twice at the Midwest Clinic and twice at the U.S. Army Band Tuba-Euphonium Conference, as well as the International Society for Music Education Conference in Beijing, China, four MENC multi-state regional conventions, and Music Educators Association State Conventions in Illinois, Arizona, Texas, Iowa, Tennessee, Alaska, Missouri, Kentucky, Ohio, Colorado, Nebraska, Arkansas, North Carolina, Indiana, New Jersey, New Mexico and the Texas Bandmasters Association.

In May of 2014, his first compact disc was released, entitled, Concertos for Brass: The Music of Thomas Bough. This disc features three original concerti for solo brass instruments and wind band, as well as a transcription of the Concerto in Eb by Neruda. It is available on the Summit Records label at www.summitrecords.com.  Since then, recent commissions have included “Legacy of Luther” from Concordia University in Chicago, “Air Mobility Fanfare” from the U.S. Air Force Band at Scott Air Force Base, “Poorest of the Poor: Music for Mother Teresa”, from the University of San Diego, “Fortress of Peace” from the Southwest Community Concert Band, “Leviathan” from Hubble Middle School, and “Burn” for Alto Saxophone and Band, commissioned by Greg Dewhirst from Texas Wesleyan University.

Learn more about his work at www.TomBough.com

Kevin Bobo is currently serving as Professor of Music (Percussion) at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, a position he has held since 2007. Prior to this appointment he served as Assistant Professor of Percussion at the University of Kansas (2003-2007). He studied percussion with J.C. Combs and Gordon Stout and composition with Greg Woodward and Dana Wilson. 

 Internationally respected as a solo marimba artist, Kevin has performed on five continents. His travels have taken him to Taiwan, Singapore, Argentina, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Australia, Spain, Latvia, Lithuania, France, Italy, the Czech Republic and nearly 40 of the United States. 

 As a composer, Kevin’s compositions are performed all over the world with his solo works frequently appearing on international competition repertoire lists. He has authored two method books and composed numerous pieces for a variety of instruments and ensembles.

 Kevin currently lives in Bloomington, Indiana with his wife Emily and

his daughter Penelope.