“Not that I don’t like singing,” the Taurus-born
laughed.
“I think singing doesn’t like me.”
She confessed that she did shock parents Leroy (Stalin) and Patsy
Calliste when they first heard her play pan.
“No one, not even me, could have seen me playing pan on a
stage since I’ve been always a sort of shy person,”
the data entry operator at the Ministry of National Security went
on.
“I didn’t even know I had it in me.”
None of her other siblings is involved in the arts.
Her love for pan began just over a decade ago, under the baton of
Lorna Conyette and Sean Ramsey, while she was still a student at
the Pleasantville Senior Comprehensive School.
She recalled that she, along with a group of friends, began playing
around with the pans in the music room.
“I realised that I liked it,” she smiled.
Calliste has never looked back.
She spent one year with her school’s steel orchestra before
heading over to Skiffle Bunch, where she has been ever since.
For her, the journey in pan, so far, has been a rewarding one and
the Coffee Street, San Fernando pan theatre is her second home.
She said pan had become an important aspect in life, since it’s
where her focus is when she’s not at her “eight-to-four”
desk job.
“What I am and where I am today is because of the pan,”
she continued.
“I’m not as shy as I used to be.
“It has taken me places, I’ve met people, and pan has
been good to me.”
Although still young, she is regarded as a senior member of Skiffle
Bunch and has assumed the maternal role in the band having responsibility
of looking after the welfare of the other young female members,
both at home and while on tour.
She also sits on the management committee of the band.
Captain Junia Regrello hailed Calliste for her loyalty to the band.
“It’s something you don’t see in the young pan
players of today, and that’s what I like; her hallmark is
her loyalty,” said Regrello.
For Calliste, the sky is the limit.
“In Skiffle Bunch anything could happen since so many opportunities
come your way as a member here,” she added.
Calliste strongly urged that young people should get involved in
pan.
“If you want to believe in yourself once again, here is the
place to be; the environment here is safe,” she added.
“I practically grew in the band and I’ve seen many others
grow, too, so its good for young people,” Calliste added.
In the same way the entire family supports dad Stalin on stage,
they are all there for Keina when she is playing her pan.
“Daddy and Mummy are always here pushing pan,” she ended.
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