Meet ANTHONY ROSE of Exodus

Join us as we feature our GREEN CARPET performers one by one ...

X is for Exodus
Location: Exodus Panyard, Eastern Main Road, St. Augustine/Tunapuna
Photo: Elspeth Duncan

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X marks the spot on the stage where Anthony Rose (Exodus pan player/musical director/former band captain) will be standing when he performs classical pan on Saturday 18th October 2008 at GREEN CARPET – Greenlight Network’s 2nd annual fundraising environmental concert.

Anthony’s journey into the world of pan began at the age of 6, as a member of Flamingo Steel Orchestra on St. John Road, the place where he was born and bred.

“Flamingoes and Exodus is like family,” he says. “After the Carnival season of 1981, some past members of Flamingoes decided they wanted to form a steelband. That’s how Exodus started. Exodus … the movement … from one band to another … and of course the scriptural meaning too.”

Photo: Elspeth Duncan

Exodus played their first panorama in 1982 (placing 4th). In 1983, Anthony made his own Exodus, moving over to the band where he was christened as their first captain. He held this position until 1990, when he started to travel with music.

Pan has taken him far and wide:
- studying music education at Akron University, Ohio
- one year in Tokyo, Japan
- musical engagements in USA, Canada, Europe, Ireland, Germany, Spain, Paris, London, Singapore

Looking back to his earlier years, Anthony recalls his days after leaving high school. “I stayed home and played pan every day from 7:00 in the morning until 10:00 at night for four years. It was personal practice and development. I would get the audio and printed music and follow it on my own, teaching myself. My parents said ‘Boy, you’re getting older. Time for you to get a job!’”

So, in 1982, he started working with the Ministry of Works as an accounts clerk. By 1985, realising that we ‘wasn’t getting time’ with his music, he decided it was time to leave. “In June 1985, I woke up and told my mother I’m not going back to the job and that was it. I never looked back. From then I went into music full time.”

Following his heart with dedication and passion has led Anthony down a fulfilling road. Today he teaches music “to anybody who wants to learn.” Interested in piano, drums, singing, jazz theory, arranging? He can give you a good foundation through Steeldrum Excel, his music school.

“Music is what I do, it’s what I have, it’s my life. Everything I have comes from playing pan, It’s how I live, it’s a hobby, it’s professional, it’s fun, it’s business.”

And what does this man with the passion for pan have to say about the environment?

“My whole thing is scriptural because of creation, earth … the environment isn’t supposed to be as it is now because everything was made perfect. It’s because of disobedience that we are where we are today. I think to get back to that state, we human beings have to undergo renewal of thinking and appreciation. Look outside and see how it is now and how it is supposed to be. Look at the flooding. When you see the amount of water and the amount of tins and plastic and old fridges and stoves … It’s a whole breakdown in discipline. No one appreciates anything or anyone anymore. We are brainwashed, but we have to do another brainwash in a positive way.”

During Anthony’s year-long stay in Japan, he was struck by the positive way in which the Japanese people related to their environment.

“In Japan they call seeing about the environment ‘public art’ … instead of ‘landscaping’. When you want to study landscaping, you go to the School of Public Art. Everything is art to them. If you see how these people take care of the land, the animals, plants, human beings. It’s love. They have an old age problem too, since they are among the people who live the longest. You see the elders in different groups on a morning transplanting trees. Imagine I was talking to a woman age 75 one morning and she’s down in a hole removing a tree. They understand and appreciate the environment. Everything is a contributing factor to each other. We need the trees, we need the oxygen. When you have no greenery, then what? Human life will be at stake. Anyone working on the environment and trying to help is doing a good thing.

Man was given a garden and he was given a job to take care of it.”

See more of Anthony online here ... and stay tuned! Spread the word as we feature other performers in this concert you do not want to miss!

GREEN CARPET
Date: Saturday 18th October
Time: 5 - 8 p.m.
Venue: La Joya Auditorium, Eastern Main Road, St. Joseph

Tickets: $150
Available from:
Glenford Bhagat - 789-0786
Shivonne DuBarry - 758-7915
Elspeth Duncan - 786-2539

50% of proceeds will go to WORC (Wildlife Orphanage and Rehabilitation Centre).

The other 50% will go toward Greenlight Network’s environmental projects. Have a look at some of our past ones.

Please forward this post to those you think will be interested in learning about our performers, attending the concert and supporting this worthy environmental cause.

Thank you!

Greenlight Network