Abe Breiling - Illinois, USA
"Why don’t you come to the steelband rehearsal?” is the first time Abe ever heard of steelband. He said “No”. After a month of persistently being asked this question, he finally went to a rehearsal. Abe was 18 and attending a community college at the time. The sound of steelpan grabbed him and he never let go. A cassette tape of Amoco Renegades’ panorama arrangements was passed on to him and it set a musical fire in his soul that will never be put out. During Abe’s community college years, he was in seven steelbands at three schools simultaneously. Before moving on to study steelpan exclusively, Abe was the winner of music scholarships from the Winnetka Music Club and the Birch Creek Music Performance Camp. He went on to Northern Illinois University (N.I.U) where he received a bachelor’s of music degree in steelpan performance and a master’s of music degree studying composing, arranging and instrument building from Liam Teague and Cliff Alexis, respectively. While at N.I.U., Abe participated in the 2000 World Steelband Festival in Trinidad and the 2002 Seoul Drum Festival in Seoul, South Korea along with many other performances on and off campus. Abe was recently the guest artist for the Harper College Steelband. Abe’s musical mission is to create music for everyone to enjoy and integrate the steelpan into ensembles not usually associated with pan. His most rewarding contribution is composing and arranging music for a various combinations of steelpan and non-steelpan instruments including viola, violin, marimba, xylophone, clarinet, piano, and guitar. For further information please visit www.musical-steel.com.
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