Fulbright in Trinidad and Tobago
Inspired by a course in Caribbean history during my master’s program at Vanderbilt University, I applied for and received (after three applications) a Fulbright U.S. Scholars grant for Trinidad and Tobago in 2018. My Fulbright project included interviewing calypso composers and teaching a course about Nashville studio practices at the University of Trinidad and Tobago. I was also able to attend multiple calypso and steel pan (band) performances and march in the 2018 Carnival parade.
My interviews of ten calypso composers are now part of Vanderbilt University’s Global Music Archive (globalmusicarchive.org). I delivered a lecture about calypso and my experiences in Trinidad at Vanderbilt’s Blair School of Music in the fall of 2019. The links below are for items related to two of the calypsonians I interviewed, Surpriser and Gregory Ballantyne.
Video of Surpriser performing “Old Age Is a Disaster”:
Old Age Is a Disaster