HCMF: Kenneth Joseph and the St. Luke’s Steel Band
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This video will premiere at 7pm on Wednesday, August 5.
Click here to watch this video on our YouTube channel.
About the Artists
A Trinidadian native, Kenneth Joseph is a graduate of the University of the West Indies Trinidad and Tobago, and Northern Illinois University with Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Music respectively. Joseph has over twenty-five years of steelpan experience and has had the pleasure to perform with local, national and International steelbands. Joseph currently serves as the steelband director at Highville Charter School and the award-winning St Luke’s Steelband of New Haven. In addition to directing, Joseph continues to be an active arranger and performer.
St. Luke’s Steel Band was started in the fall of 1999 when Father Victor Rogers and a group of supporters from New Haven’s historic St. Luke’s Episcopal Church purchased a set of used steel pans from a band in Brooklyn. Since then, the group has attracted a dedicated membership of players of all ages. Many of the members or their families come from the West Indies: the islands of Antigua, Barbados, Bermuda, Grenada, Jamaica, Montserrat, Nevis and Trinidad and Tobago are all represented in the ensemble.
Under the direction of founding director Debby Teason and assistant director Donna Johnson, St. Luke’s Steel Band quickly gained a reputation as one of the area’s most exciting performing ensembles. In 2010 Kenneth Joseph, who had just received his master’s in pan performance from the renowned Northern Illinois University steel band program, joined the directing team at St. Luke’s and became the musical director the following year. He has continued to guide the band in compelling performances as well as expand the teaching program, which now includes beginning, intermediate and adult beginners’ classes as well as an annual steel pan summer camp.
St. Luke’s Steel Band’s achievements were recognized in 2003 by an Artist’s Award from the Arts Council of Greater New Haven, and they have won two gold medals at the PANorama Caribbean Music Fests in Virginia Beach. In 2008 they performed with tenor pan virtuoso Liam Teague for a standing-room-only crowd in New Haven, and April 2009 featured a joint concert with the renowned Positive Vibrations Youth Steel Orchestra from Washington DC. Following a highly successful performance on the Yale School of Music’s Duke Ellington Concert Series with composer/performer Andy Akiho in April 2010, St. Luke’s Steel Band was invited back to perform again with Mr. Akiho in November 2010. St Luke’s Steel Band has also had the pleasure of collaborating with Haven String Quartet, resident quartet of Music Haven, and the Heritage Chorale of New Haven.
The band regularly performs during services at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church and also plays for concerts, festivals, benefits and private functions throughout the region. Their repertoire includes soca, calypso, reggae, classical, sacred, jazz, popular and island folk music.
HomeCooked Music Festival: How can I help?
Donate to one of our Food Charity Partners:
The Community Soup Kitchen serves free, nutritious meals and provides social services to all in a safe, respectful, and caring environment.
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ConnCAT’s mission is to inspire, motivate, and prepare youth and adults for educational and career advancement, through after-school arts, and job training programming. ConnCAT’s Culinary Arts Academy is designed to fulfill the market demand for food service professionals.
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Haven’s Harvest offers timely and reliable surplus food pick-up and delivery in the New Haven area, connecting businesses with community sites through the transfer of high quality excess food.
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The New Haven Food Policy Council’s mission is to build and maintain a food system that nourishes all people in a just and sustainable manner. Their work is done in collaboration with the City of New Haven, a number of local and regional non-profit organizations, small businesses, and activists.
Donate Learn MorePurchase a take-out meal from one of our Restaurant Partners:
Atelier Florian will donate $5 from each HomeCooked Music Festival menu purchase to our Food Charity partners.
The Wharf Restaurant at the Madison Beach Hotel is featuring a special week-long take out menu bundle. A $5 donation will be added on to each menu bundle purchase in support of our HCMF food partners.
100% of the proceeds from meals purchased from the Orchid Café will benefit the ConnCAT Culinary Arts Academy, one of the HomeCooked Music Festival Charity Partners.
Share this video performance on your social media and with your personal and professional networks.
100% of your donation and restaurant purchases will benefit our charity partners. The NHSO does not take any fees or profit on the HomeCooked Festival.
