Delaware Steel Summer Tour

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Delaware Steel

Delaware Steel, the premier steel drum ensemble from the University, recently completed a three week, three country tour from June 21-July 13.  The tour was made possible with generous support from the Office of Alumni Relations, the College of Arts and Science, and the Department of Music, Paul Head, chair. 

Delaware Steel actually started the tour on the morning of June 21st with a command performance in Philadelphia for the Americans for the Arts national conference with 1,400 people in attendance.  The band then took a bus to Newark, NJ international airport and caught a 5:30pm flight to Copenhagen.  From Copenhagen they traveled to Bastad, Sweden for a weeklong residency at one of Europe’s top chamber music festivals.  In Sweden, the band performed four concerts during the week.  They then traveled to Germany where they played a concert in Oldenburg and were hosted by the Cadillac Steel Band of that city.  From there they moved onto Dortmund and were hosted by Pan Kultur, a 60-member steel band that was also hosting a weekend long 15 group steel band festival in Westphalen Park.  The weekend’s festival drew more than 5,000 people.  On July 7th they traveled to Israel and played a concert each day for four days.  The culminating concert was part of the city of Netanya’s Tam Tam Festival.  That evening’s crowd topped 5,000 people as well.  All in all, more than 15,000 people heard and saw Delaware Steel and were introduced to the University of Delaware.