Toronto children learn to play steelpan in church music camp

By Heidi M Lee

Our Lady of Good Counsel (OLGC) Caribbean RC Church in Toronto, Canada, started a music camp in August 2025. The camp was established under the direction of the Dominican Sisters of St Catherine of Siena. Sisters Arlene Greenridge OP and Aluna Abbott OP, along with our Parish Priest Fr Dexter Brereton CSSp and a committee consisting of two members from the OLGC church community Hydee Bristol Joseph and Heidi M Lee in Toronto, and Gillian Lucia Garcia and Josanne Totesaut from the Fra Angelico Center for the Arts (FACTA) in Trinidad.

We had a vision to start a summer music camp here at OLGC for three weeks in August. When we first started last year, we only had four campers and at the end of the three weeks, we had a total of nine campers. The ages of the campers were 5 to 13 years old.

The children had the opportunity to learn how to play musical instruments such as the steelpan, recorders, drums, and the guitar. The young campers had no musical experience except for one camper who is a young teenager.

At the end of the three weeks, the campers had a recital where the parents and the church community had the opportunity to experience what the young campers learned over the three-week period. The recital was well received as parents and the church community were amazed by the campers’ performances.

This year we had seven returning campers from 2025 and nine new campers. The campers had the opportunity to attend camp either for one, two or all three weeks. We had a few campers whose parents wanted them to come for one week, maximum two weeks. At the end of the first week, those campers wanted to attend all three weeks, which they did.

Like last year, at the end of the three weeks the campers had their recital. This year, we had a full house as more family and church community members came out to support our young campers. The feedback we received from both parents and the community at large was quite encouraging.

We had one parent who said to us that she was amazed how well her two children played on the steelpan and was happy when we encouraged her to send her children for all three weeks. She saw how beneficial it was for her children to attend for the three weeks versus two weeks which is what she had originally signed up.

Not only music

Each day, we began camp with prayer and spirituality. The campers watched a movie based on both Old and New Testament stories. At the end of the movie, there was a discussion on what lessons they learnt, how the stories relate to their everyday life, and what they can do differently for that day.

One parent said, “I don’t know what you guys are doing, however my children come home, they are not fighting with each other, they are being kind to each other, and they want to spend more time with each other”.

After the movies the campers learned how to play their recorders. Within one week the little campers were ready to learn how to play ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’ and ‘Three Blind Mice’.  The older campers were challenged to play Christmas songs. Following recorder time, the campers had a small snack break and afterwards, they learned how to play the African drums.

Next, the campers were split into two groups. One group participated in arts and crafts activities, and the other group went to learn how to play the steelpan.

We then gave the campers a 40-minute lunch break where they had the opportunity to interact with everyone. The campers brought their lunch from home Monday to Thursday and on a Friday members from the church community cooked lunch. Right after lunch, the campers were engaged in a dance exercise class. This helped them to settle down to get ready to either do the arts and craft activities or learn to play the steelpan. At the end of the day, campers were given free time to either play a game or get caught up on finishing their artwork.

We are hoping that this initiative we started two years ago, would enhance and facilitate an exchange of skills and knowledge for both countries over the years to come.