Participants

Elliott "Ellie" Mannette was born November 5, 1927, in Trinidad. As a child, he was attracted to carnival festivities and music. At age 11, he had his first opportunity to perform in a carnival parade with a group called the New Town Cavalry Tamboo Bamboo (later renamed Alexander's Ragtime Band). The group used traditional parade instruments, but these were subsequently banned by the British colonial government. Band members began experimenting with paint pans and biscuit drums and found that they could vary the pitch by striking different areas. Mannette and some other younger members formed their own band, the Oval Boys, the predecessor to the Woodbruck Invaders, one of Trinidad's best and longest-lasting groups.

When the British lifted the wartime carnival ban after World War II, Mannette became the leader of the Invaders. About the same time, oil drums became the standard source material for the instruments, and Mannette, a machinist by trade, became a pioneer of the new technology. He sank the lid to create a tensed playing surface and fired the metal to improve the acoustic properties. A variety of steel drums was created, and entire orchestras were formed. These changes helped to propel the instrument into wide popularity. Over the next several decades, Mannette brought an even more sophisticated approach to pan tuning, using a stroboscope to analyze and shape the harmonic blend.

In 1951, the Trinidad government organized the Trinidad All-Steel Percussion Orchestra, a national steel band, to represent the country at the Festival of Britain. Mannette was among the musicians chosen to be trained by Lt. Joseph Griffith of Antigua's Police Band. Of the experience, Mannette said, "Look, we were 11 pan men who had no formal training in music theory. Mr. Griffith ... was a disciplined band director and insisted that we be disciplined musicians. We practiced for hours a day and, along with playing dozens of gigs to raise money, even had to build new instruments for the trip!... Mr. Griffith told me that I would have to build a bass pan from a 55-gallon drum. Now prior to that, we used only the light caustic soda barrels to make our bass, and only one barrel at that.... I told him I didn't believe I could build a bass from a 55-gallon drum; they were just too heavy and would not sound. I have to laugh when I think about this now, so many things in pan have come about — quite by accident. Anyway, he refused to take no for an answer.... I guess he knew what he was talking about, because I did do it."

By 1959, the Invaders had a contract with Columbia Records. Mannette came to the United States in 1963 in response to an invitation to develop a U.S. Navy steel band, build the instruments, and train the players. He returned for good in 1967 to work with inner-city youth in New York City. He started more than 10 new bands. His company, The Mannette Touch, has become the main source of steel-band instruments in the United States. He has worked with more than 350 school programs and in recent years has served as an artist-in-residence at West Virginia University. His innovations, musicianship, teaching, and advocacy for his tradition have earned him the title "Father of the Modern Steel Drum."

Che Lovelace is a Trinidadian artist who lives and works in Port of Spain, Trinidad. He first came to prominence as a champion surfer and was appointed president of Trinidad's Surfing Association in 2012.

Brian Greene is a professor of physics and mathematics at Columbia University.

Professor Greene is world-renowned for his groundbreaking discoveries in the field of superstring theory, including the co-discovery of mirror symmetry and the discovery of spatial topology change. He is the director of Columbia’s Center for Theoretical Physics.

Professor Greene is known to the public through his New York Times best selling books and numerous media appearances from the Late Show with Stephen Colbert to Charlie Rose. The Washington Post called him “the single best explainer of abstruse concepts in the world today.” Professor Greene has hosted two NOVA mini-series based on his books, receiving the George Foster Peabody award for “The Elegant Universe with Brian Greene.” Greene has had cameo roles in a number of Hollywood films including Frequency, Maze and The Last Mimzy and in 2008, with producer Tracy Day, co-founded the World Science Festival. He is the director of Columbia’s Center for Theoretical Physics.

As a cofounder of The Knife, his duo with his sister Karin Dreijer (AKA Fever Ray), Olof Dreijer made some of the best electronic pop of the last couple decades. As Oni Ayhun, a production alias active from 2008 to 2015, he made club music that was just as vital and distinct, from the blissed out anthem on OAR 003 to his blazing remix of Emmanuel Jal's "Kuar." And yet, as significant as his contributions have been, he's always kept a low profile, preferring collaboration to solo work and dodging the spotlight whenever possible. Since The Knife disbanded in 2014, he has defied any expectation of what might come next for him. "Olof Dreijer's instrument of choice for his latest project might come as a surprise to fans of The Knife," The Guardian wrote a few years ago in an article about Hiya Wal Âalam, a Tunisian ensemble in which Dreijer plays the flute.

In addition to that project, Dreijer's done production for artists like Planningtorock and the Swedish pop singer Zhala. He's also reemerged as a club DJ, honing a wild and colourful sound that contains echoes of his records (especially that remix of "Kuar") but mostly presents something completely new.