Kendrum Youth Steel Orchestra

at Black Box Theatre Aug. 30By Sean Leonard / The Daily ItemLYNN – The Kendrum Youth Steel Orchestra (KYSO) of Toronto is scheduled to perform at Lynn Arts Black Box Theatre the night of Aug. 30, a show its local organizer hopes will inspire local youths of Caribbean heritage to not just pick up the beat, but learn it.Ronald Lammy, a native of Guyana and corporate executive, immigrated to America in 1988 and lives today with his family on the Lynn-Swampscott line. As a member of Lynn’s Cultural District Committee and the North Shore Caribbean Association, he helped coordinate KYSO’s self-funded visit to Boston and Lynn.It was through his work with the Guyana Cultural Association of New York, Lammy said, that he was introduced to KYSO in Brooklyn, and was so impressed with the talent of the young performers – especially that they could read music notation – that he visited the group in Toronto to learn more about them. He has since become a volunteer local promoter of the group which is scheduled to perform at several locations during Boston’s Caribbean Carnival Aug. 25-27, at Boston’s Charles Street A.M.E. Church on Aug. 29, and here at Lynn Arts at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 30.Lammy said steelpan music is a staple of Caribbean culture that is largely missing on the North Shore.”Percussion music education in many urban areas is limited,” Lammy said. “Formal music theory instruction for the steelpan is almost non-existent.”Most American steelpan, he said, is limited to musicianship – performers who learned from the streets who don’t actually read music and aren’t educated in music theory.”Teaching pan a new way is essential,” he said. “Formal music instruction will develop a foundation that serves band members as a path to personal development and self-sufficiency.”My focus is on music as education,” Lammy added. “If we can inspire children to that level of proficiency, they can become great musicians and that will affect others aspects of their lives.”Ideally, he said, KYSO’s concert on Aug. 30 will help ignite interest in steelpan that will lead to formal teaching of the art in Lynn schools, or through local cultural organizations, and also leave a lasting impression on KYSO members.”I want them to remember Lynn,” he said.Lammy credits LynnArts and also James Cowdell, director of Lynn’s Economic Development and Industrial Corp., for sponsoring the KYSO concert in Lynn.”Events like this definitely help local businesses,” Cowdell said, “that’s why the EDIC is sponsoring creation of the Arts and Cultural District.”Cowdell commended Lammy for his dedication to the cause.”Ronald is very passionate about it and we’re happy to work with him,” Cowdell said.KYSO, a 14-member band formed by the Toronoto School District in 2006 under the leadership of Kenton Wyatt, a Guyana-born music educator, has performed at locations through North America.Lammy said donations of $5 will be requested of those who attend the Lynn Arts Show to help defray KYSO’s expenses. The performers, he noted, who will be traveling with chaperones, are paying their own way for the trip, with lodging for five days at a Dorchester hotel.