Commentary

Local musician Paul Ormandy masters percussion and champions the steel pan

March 26, 2026   ·   0 Comments

By Constance Scrafield

To study music for the purpose of understanding how and why, around the world, music matters, is intrinsic to humanity and how it reflects on the human condition.

This Master of Arts (MA) is part of Paul Ormandy’s musical education and his life in music, including his work with percussion instruments. So, the Citizen recently took the opportunity to interview this remarkable Orangeville-based musician.

He recalled, “Right out of school, I played for the Canadian Opera Company (COC).”

When Come From Away was in Toronto, Ormandy, playing the Bodhrán filled in “for the regular guy” as needed for most of the show’s run, as he did for a number of musicals at Mirvish. These included The Lion King, The Lord of the Rings and Miss Saigon, to name a few.

“I honed my skills on the Bodhrán,” he said. “I had to learn to play it well for Toronto.”

Throughout his career in music, Ormandy has held several leadership roles. For the last few years, he has been and is an “Itinerant Music Instructor: Steel Pan.”

The Steel Pan is a musical instrument originating in Trinidad and Tobago, where it is also the national musical instrument.

For clarity, the Steel Pan is a chromatically pitched musical instrument made from 200 litre industrial drums. They are marvellous for how easily one learns to play on them.

Ormandy began his professional life as a musician at 15. He was too young to drive, but the band members were fine to give him a lift, he related.

Years later, following his attendance to York University, Toronto also for his Bachelors in Percussion Performance (Honours) before his MA and then, taking a Postgraduate Diploma: at the Interlochen Arts Academy, in the US, Ormandy worked as an instructor for Long and McQuade and as a U of T Course Director of Afro-Cuban Music Ensemble; he was an Instructor of Percussion at the Royal Conservatory of Music, all the while working as a professional musician with bands and in the theatre.

The Caribbean charm of the Steel Pan and percussion has taken him to travel to Europe and Japan, where he has been four times.

He was the Steel Pan soloist at two separate World Expos: Expo 2000 in Hanover, Germany, and one before, Expo 1998 in Lisbon, Portugal.

He performed at the Marimbop Musaic World Music Ensemble as the Steel Pan soloist for their Southern Japan Tour.

So many memories and interesting times.

In due course, he and his partner were living in Toronto, and he began to instruct percussion in schools: “I was often away in the evening working as an Itinerant Instructor of Steel Drums, travelling between schools for the TDSB. In 2013, my partner and I sold our condo in Alberta and purchased a home in Orangeville.”

They had heard that Orangeville was a nice town where houses were reasonably priced at that time. Ormandy said, “We just drove up to Orangeville and bought a house.”

His experiences taught him that in performance, “there is no middle ground. I learned that I had better have the skills to survive as a performer. You have to be a bit savvy and situate yourself.”

Living in Orangeville with his partner and their nine-year-old daughter suits Ormandy and his family well. Even the almost daily trip to Toronto for his life as an itinerant music instructor in Steel Pan does not pose a real burden.

He began to praise the Steel Pan as a musical instrument for its beautiful simplicity and ease to learn.

“It’s extremely easy to start,” he assures future students. “I could teach a tune in ten minutes. My father always said I should be a teacher, He must have been right,” he said, “because here I am doing it.”

An idea was floated to create a Steel Pan Community Band in a community like Orangeville, where young people are looking for things to do. The early needs are an investment to purchase a number of Steel Pans and finding a space to store them between performances.

Ormandy was booked to do a four-show tour with Chroí, which included last Saturday’s at Westminster Church, just before Covid and cancellation. Chris Dawes had asked Ormandy to play with them then. Five years later, here they finally were, and in a text the next day, Ormandy let the Citizen know that the concert “went very well and the Orangeville audience was exceptional, enthusiastic and appreciative!”

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