Features
Janelle De Souza
Dr Mia Gormandy-Benjamin started playing the pan at the age of five, joined the Massy Trinidad All Stars Steel Orchestra at the age of nine and by the age of 15 had toured the world and won numerous pan playing competitions.
It was therefore no surprise that she chose a career in music and, at the age of 34, is Assistant Professor of Music (pan) at the Academy of Performing Arts, UTT, Artistic Director of the Massy Trinidad All Stars Steel Orchestra. , CEO of PanNotation and Discipline Leader for UTT’s APA Pan Fellowship.
She explained that PanNotation was created to allow uploading and downloading of steel music scores, is a library for educational materials and an interactive platform that connects musicians, educators and steel enthusiasts.
She is also the wife of Kygel Benjamin, a pan educator and former percussionist with the Steel Symphony Orchestra, and music director and arranger of the Steel All Stars Youth Orchestra, and mother to two-year-old Milan Benjamin.
Born and raised in Belmont, Gormandy-Benjamin started playing the bowl when her parents bought one for her older brother. He wasn’t interested, but she kept trying to play, even though she could barely reach the instrument.
They realized she was interested and sent her to lessons. At the age of six, she also started playing the piano, but eventually gave it up to focus on pans. This was also the year she entered and won her first pageant.
“I think that’s when my parents said, ‘I think we’re on to something.’
In addition to performing with the All Stars, she also had a solo pan career and sang calypso at Newtown Girls’ Primary School. She went to Southeastern Port of Spain for a year, then transferred to St. Joseph’s Monastery, Port of Spain.
At the age of 15, she received a scholarship to attend Northern Illinois University (NIU) to pursue a bachelor of music degree in steel performance, which she achieved in 2009 with full honors. There, she studied under Professor Liam Teague and national award winner, the late Dr Clifford Alexis.
She told WMN that the scholarship was a surprise because she did not apply for it. She recalled being a guest performer at an awards ceremony attended by Teague and Dr. Larry Snider, professor of music and director of percussion studies at the University of Akron in Ohio.
After the ceremony, she was invited to perform as a guest at NIU and Akron, and Teague basically told her she had to go to NIU for him to get her a scholarship.
To add to everyone’s composure, a few weeks before the performance, she had represented TT in an international talent competition for teenagers, where the winner got to tour Europe. She came second and thus returned to the TT.
“When the winner was on tour in Europe, the award ceremony took place in Trinidad. So if I had won that competition, I would have completely lost that opportunity.”
At the time, she was attending St Joseph’s Convent and it all happened right before her CXC exams. So by the time the CXC results were released, she was already a student at NIU, where she also graduated with a Master of Music degree in steel performance in 2011.
In 2013, she received a second master’s degree, and in 2017, a doctorate of philosophy in ethnomusicology from Florida State University (FSU).
Ethnomusicology, she explained, is the study of music culturally, historically and within society.
“We have composers who create the music, music theorists who analyze the music, and ethnomusicologists who ask the why questions. We try to understand how culture affects the creation and performance of music.”
Why ethnomusicology?
While doing her master’s at NIU, students had to do a research project, and she wanted to do hers on the history of the Panorama trial. However, she could not find any sources, and the books she did find were written by non-Trinidadians.
Upset that no Trinidadians were documenting their own culture, she went to her teacher who suggested she become an ethnomusicologist so she could study world music.
She later discovered that the searches had been done, but she was unable to access the papers and articles because they were either unpublished, behind paywalls, or otherwise difficult to access.
“I wanted to get my PhD in ethnomusicology, but the university told me I should get a master’s in it. But when I got into ethnomusicology, I thought it was about performance. I thought I would learn to play all these different styles of music and do research.
“I didn’t fully understand what ethnomusicology was until I was actually attending Florida State. But eventually I liked it and developed a passion for it. I guess my intention was to add to the research that has been done, which is actually part of what PanNotation does.
Gormandy-Benjamin said, over the years, she has had students apply to study ethnomusicology abroad because they saw a need for practitioners at TT.
However, she was worried about their career paths when they return to TT. She said that most ethnomusicologists are employed by universities, but she would like to see official positions in the Ministry of Culture or some other funded entity that encouraged the documentation of TT culture.
“Our culture is so rich. There are so many we have. We have to start taking it seriously.”
In 2016, while still a PhD candidate, she returned to the country, applied and was accepted into her position at UTT. Before that, she had spent months in Japan doing research for her dissertation, Pan in Japan: Cultural Adaptation and Adaptation of the National TT Instrument.
She told WMN that she had job offers from American universities, but she had always planned to return to TT. She felt that the country needed more people who had experienced the international market so that they could help evaluate the local pan scene and take it from good to great.
She also saw how American students had access to technology and programs so that, when they reached the university level, they had advantages that local students did not have. And she wanted to change that.
During the ten years he studied in the US, Gormandy-Benjamin returned to TT many times to play with the All Stars for Panorama as well as the Classical Jewels concert series.
One year she was asked to be a guest conductor at Classical Jewels, and in 2019 the artistic director. Then, in February of this year, she became the artistic director of the orchestra.
“I like doing the Classical Jewels concert the most because it’s a platform to try and do things differently and out of the box. I’m all for it. I also like working on something with the group.
“Also, as part of my role as director, I oversee the youth academy, developing from five-year-olds to 12-year-olds. I don’t have to teach, but I guide the tutors and develop the curriculum.”
She also developed curriculum and learning outcomes for other grades for the Catholic Board of Education.
She believes that music practice and theory should be taught together so that children can develop skills such as ear training and sight reading at an early age. This will allow local musicians to be on an equal skill level with other students if they decide to study abroad.
“When I learned music, it was very separate. I got to grade eight, which is the highest grade in music theory at the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music in England, I got to NIU and I couldn’t sight read.
“This is a key practical element required of you as a professional. So I think bringing the two together allows you to immediately connect theory with practice. Because that’s what the real world is about.”
Despite her busy schedule, she continues to play with All Stars for Panorama. Before becoming an art director, she especially enjoyed not being in charge and it keeps her game skills sharp.
She thanked her former music teacher, Odessa Vincent Brown, who she said was instrumental in her development, as well as her family for their unwavering support over the years.
Her father, Mario Gormandy, is a retired fire officer and self-taught pianist, and her mother, Ingrid Gormandy, is an artist who worked at Port of Spain City Hall. Both were very supportive of her musical interests.
She believes her mother’s family told her she couldn’t pursue art and, because she experienced that disappointment, was extremely supportive of Gormandy-Benjamin pursuing her passion.
“My parents, in general, were very fond of the arts. Both of their passion for art made them open up to me to learn and perform. They nurtured my passion for pan by allowing me to go to music lessons, participating in competitions, being physically there for me during practices and shows, and allowing me to perform abroad even when they couldn’t go.”
