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Colony Calypso is a community steel drum band group made up of high school and adult players in the Matanuska-Susitna area of Alaska. We are one of only a couple groups in the state of Alaska. We perform for both public and private events in our area. Our focus is to:
Share our love for the Steel Drum Instrument along with Caribbean Music and its culture in Alaska
To help teach adults and high school students this unique instrument
To give people in our community the opportunity to network with each other through this music ensemble
Upcoming events:
Birchtree Charter School Christmas Bazaar at Birchtree Charter School at 7000 E. Wonder Circle (Palmer): Dec. 6 at 10:30 AM-11:30 AM
Colony Christmas: Nativities event at Palmer Later day Saints Church at 560 West Bogard Road (Palmer) : Dec. 13, 2025 at 11AM-12PM.
Light the World Performance at Midtown Mall in Anchorage (600 E. Northern Lights Blvd): Dec. 19, 2025 at 11AM-12PM.
Willow Winter Carnival Festival: at the Willow Community Center at 23557 Willow Community Center Circle (Willow): Jan. 31 (time is not set).
Contact to get more info about our group, please email Tobias Lambert at steeldrumer123@gmail.com
Our history: Colony Calypso has been around since the 1990's. The steel drums were organized and purchases by Charles Reynolds (and his family), Ginny Packer (and her family), the Dalby family and others that combined together to create the group. It is a community group in the truest form. We have players that have come in with little to lots of music reading abilities and are still playing. Most of the group are not musicians in their daytime lives. The group has continued to expand with add new players, adding more equipment and music. Presently, we have been averaging about 8-10 players with our equipment set up in both east side and west side of the Mat-Su valley.
Here is a couple YOUTUBE (from 2009 AK State Fair) and other videos from some of our gigs:
Colony Calypso playing Cantina Band and Groovin
Colony Calypso playing Pan Painted Blues and Limbo Sorry the title says Lornabarret, but it is Pan Painted
Colony Calypso playing Hard Times and Marianne
Colony Middle School Steel drum group Playing Evil Ways for the Mat-Su Borough School Board meeting in March 2025 for music in our school's month
Currently we have 2 directors/teachers:
Tobias Lambert (Colony Calypso east side)-currently rehearse at Colony Middle School (9250 E. Bogard Road, Palmer, AK) on Thursday night 6PM-8PM. He is a retire music teacher of the Mat-Su that has taught at Colony for 24 years. He has been a member of the group for over 17 years. He mostly plays Lead, Double Tenor and 6 Bass but he owns a full set of drums within the group. He does music arranging for the group and has traveled to Trinidad and Tobago to learn and perform on the island that created it. Presently, he offers group classes for adults and High School students.
Shauna Kron (Colony Calypso west side)-currently rehearse out of Knik-Goosebay Area. She goes by "Knik Calypso" and players can merge into Colony Calypso. Her website is: https://shaunakron.com . Shauna has been a steel drum player since college. She is a retire music teacher who focused on Double Second during her college years in Montana. She has performing in many locations and events (including Montana, Washington state and Alaska). She does offer private lessons on steel drum playing along with group lessons.
Steel drum basic history: Steel drums are the only 20th Century non amplified instrument group created. Basically, they were created in Trinidad and Tobago by people who were willing to experiment with the materials they had around them and create these instrument. During WWII, the USA and UK had used Trinidad and Tobago as a base of operation along with their oil reserves to "fuel" their war efforts. The empty oil cans were left and the locals figured out how to bend the metal to create an instrument. Over the next 50+ years, the instrument became a unique musical form and sound that we call Steel Drum music or "Pan" music.
We offer classes for people to learn to play. Here are the instruments we offer from our collection.
Lead or Tenor Pan: This pan is a single drum with about 30-36 notes that plays mostly melody lines. It is the highest sounding pan. The tenor in sacred heart sings is the melody part and the tenor drum takes that same approach to its name.
Double Tenor Pan: This pan is a double drum with about 36-38 notes that plays mostly melodies or harmonized parts to the melody. It is lower in range from a lead pan. This drum is not always available in every ensemble.
Double Second Pan: This pan is a double drum with about 36-38 notes that plays melodies, harmonized melody lines, strums and chord lines. It is very usable as a steel drum and is probably the most commonly played drum in the entire steel drum ensemble. The drum is about the same ranges as a double tenor.
Cello Pan: This pan is a triple drum (it can be double or quad as well) with about 30+ notes. It mostly plays chords and strum parts but can play melodies as well. The range of the instrument tends to be on the mid-low range. It is in the same range of a string cello which is where it gets its name. Our sets sits on legs instead of a stand like the picture.
Guitar Pan: This pan is a triple (it can be a double or quad as well) with about 30+ notes. It mostly plays chords and strum parts but can play melodies as well. The range of the instrument tends to be the mid-low range (almost the same as a cello). The main difference between the guitar and cello tends to be the way it is written. Guitars (likes its string counterpart) tend to "strum" more and cellos (like its string counterpart) tend to match bass parts a little more often.
Quadraphonic Pan: This is a pan that is a quad (4 ) drum set. It is sometimes called a quad or quadet. They are the least used drum in most USA school groups, but they are very common in Trinidad and Tobago. They have around 40+ notes which makes them the largest range of any steel drum instrument. They tend to be play mostly in the mid to low range, but they can get well into the lead pan range. They mostly play in bass clef but sometimes the parts are written in treble clef because of its extensive range of notes.
Tenor Bass Pan: This is a pan that is a quad (4) drum set. It has about 20 notes on it. It tends to play bass lines only but in a higher range. It does go lower than the cello/guitar/quad drums so it can create those bass lines. They are fairly common in USA groups but in Trinidad and Tobago, they are normally only used in school groups, not professional groups.
Six Bass Pan: This is the lowest of the pan instruments. It has the lowest range but only has 18 notes total between all six drums. It plays bass lines and can get well into the "tuba" range of notes. This is also the drums that has the most variations to it. There are 7 bass, 8 bass, 9 bass and 12 bass which allows for more notes to the instruments. 6 bass is the most common version world wide with schools and professional groups. The other variations are more geared to Trinidad and Tobago professional groups
Engine Room: This is the "driver" for the group. It contains lots of instruments, including drum set, conga, scrapers, shakers, cowbell, brake drum (yes a car brake), biscuit pan (yes kitchen pan), and lots of other percussion instruments. Its main job is to set down the beat and style that keep the group together. Some of the styles that are common are Soca, Soca Party, Calypso, Reggae, Samba, along with many American styles of Rock, Latin and Jazz styles.
CLASSES TO LEARN HOW TO PLAY PANS
Classes for adults on the east side of the Valley with Tobias Lambert have not been set up. They are normally during the summer months and are normally 2 1/2 hours in length for 5 days (normally 1 week). For High School students only in the Mat-Su school district, there will be afterschool group/class will be created in the future. Info will be sent to the High School music teachers about dates and times. It will mostly be on Monday and Thursday afternoons from 4PM-5PM at Colony Middle School. The length of the class will run a large part of the school year. You can contact Tobias Lambert at steeldrumer123@gmail.com for more info.
Classes or Private Lessons for the west side of the Valley is with Shauna Kron. You can contact her and get more info through her website at https://shaunakron.com/ . She does offer private lessons for adults and students at her location. You do not need live on the west side of the Valley to take them. It is just the location.
COST: In short, there is a minimum of $25 to Colony Calypso to help maintain the instruments but individual lessons might have additional costs or the calypso fee is tied to it. It depends on who and what type of class you are taking. Please contact Tobias Lambert or Shauna Kron if you have questions.
Colony Calypso does and is looking to play for events
As a group, we are always looking to play for events as long as our players/families can make the scheduled time. Being most of us have day jobs/school, it has to work within that context. If you have an event that is looking for live music with a Caribbean sound, feel free to contact us. Cost maybe involved but it depends on the event. Contact Tobias Lambert at steeldrumer123@gmail.com for more info.
Other groups in the State of Alaska that you can contact for more info about steel drums performances or lessons:
Fairbanks: Cold Steel Pan Orchestra
University of Alaska Fairbanks Percussion
Anchorage: Service High School music
John Damberg private percussion teacher
If you have an Alaska Steel drum group and you want to be added, please email Tobias Lambert at steeldrumer123@gmail.com .
Colony playing in trinidad.mp4Some fun stuff.
Colony Calypso and Trinidad/Tobago together.
This is a video from the Colony Trip to Trinidad and Tobago back around 2017. We are playing Sayamanda by Andre Tanker with students from the International School of Port of Spain. This has been a regular trip for our young players. As part of the exchange, we share stuff about Alaska with them.
Here is an article link from the University of the West Indies, St. Austine Campus in Trinidad at the department of Steel Drum Engineering. We have visited many times to learn about the science and math that goes into designing a steel drum. This is also the place where the PHI drum is a being developed and made. This is a drum that is like an electric keyboard only it is played like a Lead steel drum. Enjoy. 2017 University of West Indies/Colony Calypso workshop in Trinidad
If you want more info, please contact Tobias Lambert at steeldrumer123@gmail.com . PLEASE NOTE: THIS WEBSITE IS STILL BEING WORKED ON AT THIS TIME
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