By Kendall Williams
For more than a decade, Pan in Motion, Inc. has worked to preserve, strengthen, and advance steelpan culture through education, performance, mentorship, and community engagement. Founded in Brooklyn in 2014, the nonprofit organization has become an important cultural home for musicians of different ages and backgrounds—particularly young people seeking a meaningful connection to Caribbean culture and the traditions of carnival.
- Advertisement -
Under the leadership of composer, educator, and steelpan specialist Dr. Kendall K. Williams, Pan in Motion was created to provide opportunities that extend beyond learning how to play an instrument. The organization uses steelpan as a vehicle for developing discipline, confidence, creativity, cultural awareness, and a sense of belonging. Its work recognizes that preserving a culture requires more than remembering its past; it requires preparing a new generation to take ownership of its future.
Pan in Motion has introduced steelpan music to students throughout New York City through in-school and after-school programming, workshops, performances, and community events. Through partnerships with schools, cultural organizations, and other institutions, young musicians receive hands-on instruction while learning about the history and cultural significance of the steelpan. For many students, these programs provide their first opportunity to see themselves and their heritage represented meaningfully within music education.
The organization’s impact is especially visible during the carnival season. Each summer, Pan in Motion creates an intergenerational cultural arts environment where musicians, families, volunteers, and community members gather to rehearse, learn, and prepare for New York’s annual steelband Panorama competition. The experience connects young participants to one of the Caribbean community’s most significant cultural traditions while teaching them the commitment required to bring a large musical production to life.
Preparing for Panorama is about far more than a single performance or competition. Young musicians learn responsibility, teamwork, endurance, musicianship, and respect for the people who built the culture before them. They rehearse alongside experienced performers, receive guidance from arrangers and educators, and discover that they are not simply participating in carnival—they are becoming cultural ambassadors and future leaders within it.
This intergenerational exchange is central to Pan in Motion’s mission. Veteran musicians carry valuable knowledge about the history, technique, and spirit of the steelband movement. Young participants bring new ideas, energy, technological awareness, and fresh perspectives. When these generations work together, tradition is neither frozen in the past nor abandoned in the name of progress. Instead, it continues to evolve.
That balance between preservation and innovation has allowed Pan in Motion to contribute to the progressive growth of steelpan. The organization honors the instrument’s roots in Trinidad and Tobago while demonstrating its limitless possibilities in contemporary music, education, and artistic collaboration. Its musicians engage with calypso and soca while also exploring classical music, jazz, popular music, and newly composed works. This approach presents the steelpan not only as an emblem of carnival, but also as a sophisticated global instrument capable of flourishing in classrooms, concert halls, community spaces, and professional stages.
Pan in Motion’s reach has included collaborations and connections with respected institutions such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The Juilliard School, Brooklyn College, Sō Percussion, and the New York Philharmonic. These experiences help expand the spaces in which steelpan is heard and valued. Just as importantly, they allow young musicians to envision themselves participating in cultural institutions and professional environments that may once have seemed inaccessible.
The organization has also remained committed to giving back. Its activities have included scholarships, youth development initiatives, community performances, educational workshops, mentorship, and opportunities for emerging musicians to grow into teachers and leaders. These efforts strengthen not only individual participants, but also the wider community surrounding them.
At a time when many cultural traditions face challenges related to funding, space, visibility, and generational continuity, the work of Pan in Motion is especially important. The young people participating today will become tomorrow’s performers, arrangers, educators, organizers, entrepreneurs, and advocates. By investing in them, Pan in Motion is investing in the continued life of carnival and the cultural community it represents.
Pan in Motion’s story is ultimately one of movement: honoring where the culture has been, responding to where it is now, and helping guide where it will go next. Through every class, rehearsal, performance, and mentorship opportunity, the organization affirms that young people are not merely the future of the culture. They are already essential to its strength, relevance, and continued progress.
