Nevin Roach – Music is my Therapy!
Nevin was born in Roseau, Dominica on the 22nd July 1988, but emigrated with his mother and sister to the idyllic island of Tobago just a few weeks after his birth.
Tobago, is the smaller of the two Caribbean islands comprising the nation of Trinidad and Tobago. It’s known for its wide, sandy beaches and biodiverse tropical rainforest. Framed by mountains, the village-like port capital, Scarborough, is anchored by its central food market. Overlooking the city are the 18th-century ruins of Fort King George, now housing the Tobago Museum and its local art and artefacts.
Nevin has fond memories of fooling around with electronic keyboards and the piano when he was younger and at the tender age of 10 he started taking piano lessons and writing his musical exams which he completed up to grade 3 in the Trinity College of London music exams.
Nevin Roach
His interest and passion for music continued in Bishop’s High School where music was one of the eight subjects he chose for his CXC exams. His plan was to continue with the piano as his instrument of choice for his music lessons but unfortunately his plan was dashed when his piano tutor moved to the USA and he stopped playing for a while. He was faced with the decision of continuing with another tutor but his musical encounter with the steelpan instrument squashed that idea.
Backstage with Ebony Panjammerz in St. Vincent 2018
His sister was instrumental in Nevin’s introduction to steelpan as she had played the instrument for over a year and brought a steelpan home to practice. As curiosity would have it, one day when Nevin returned home from school his interest was piqued so he picked up the sticks and started knocking the pan and to his amazement, the notes he had played sounded like the start of the Trinidad and Tobago National anthem. Nevin continued until he figured out a few bars of music. This occurred around 2002 when he was fourteen years old and the ‘Pan Jumbie’ hooked him. Once that ‘Jumbie’ gets into your blood you are hooked. The ‘Music in your Blood’ starts to come to life with the elements of Pitch, Duration, Dynamics, Tempo, Timbre, Texture and Structure and flows with Melody, Harmony and Rhythm to capture the heart and awake the musical spirit to create and play music. Nevin was truly captured and at this point there was no turning back.
His high school music teacher, Anthony Moore, threw gas on the fire for the passion Nevin had for pan. He eventually participated in the Pan Minors Music Literacy Scholarship Programme (Level 1 & 2) in 2003/04 and successfully passed music at CXC level. Subsequently in 2006, he became captain of the Bishop’s High School Steel Orchestra and they placed 3rd in the Tobago House of Assembly’s Junior Panorama 2006.
Now that the Pan passion was running high, Nevin made his debut in the Senior National Panorama that year with Katzenjammers Steel Orchestra. Since then he has played with a number of bands in Trinidad and Tobago, most recently with Uptown Fascinators who won the 2020 National Small Conventional Bands title.
Playing in the 2020 T&T National Small Conventional Bands title with Uptown Fascinators
Nevin has shared his musical talents throughout the Caribbean region performing with Mosaic Steel Orchestra (Barbados), Pantime Steel Orchestra (St. Lucia), Commancheros (Grenada), Ebony Panjammers (St. Vincent), Ebonites Steel Orchestra (Antigua) and West Side Steel Orchestra (Antigua).
Playing with Champion band Pantime Steel Orchestra (St. Lucia) in 2014
His brilliant mind saw him graduated from UWI Cave Hill in 2010, with Bachelors in Computer Science. What an achievement. A scientific musical prodigy, he also created the historic and innovative PanoGrama competition in 2020, which will feature in a subsequent article here on Pan Podium.
