Foluke's magic drum

The story of seven-year-old pannist Foluke Virgil first appeared in Newsday Tobago on February 8. Today writer ELSPETH DUNCAN shares an edited piece with Newsday Kids.

When he was in preschool, Foluke Virgil’s mother (Derleen Turner-Virgil) made him a pan out of one of the large milk tins she used for the baby of the family — Foluke’s brother, Sadiki. She banged in the top of the tin to create the notes and wrapped material around the ends of some large nails to create the pan sticks. With a cord attached to the tin, the little homemade instrument was a pan-around-the-neck masterpiece.

Foluke, who was very drawn to pan as an instrument, would often drop whatever he was doing to run to the tin toy and play it.

His mother reminisces with a mix of fondness and amusement: “He would make noise at home with it morning, noon and night!”

When he reached infants class, Foluke decided that he wanted to play a real pan. In October of 2018, he joined Hilltop Explorers, a pan side from Top Hill, Mason Hall, founded and managed by Sister Ann Dennis.

“Finally!” Foluke reportedly said, when he was able to get his hands on the real thing.

With pan classes on Tuesday and Thursday evenings and Saturday nights, Foluke was quick to pick up the nine Christmas songs being taught by the group’s arranger, 18-year-old Kerris Anne Adams.

By mid-December, about two and a half months after picking up pan for the first time, he was performing with the band in a Christmas recital at Lowlands Mall. Standing in the front row of pans, flanked by older youths, he was barely taller than his gleaming silver high tenor.

It was perhaps evident to many of us who were present at the Christmas recital that this pint-sized, seven-year-old boy, with the sticks in his hands flying around the instrument like lightning, was a musical child prodigy.

Sometimes Foluke’s lone pan music can be heard resounding through the neighbourhood. Gentle and pleasant, the harmonious notes conjure feelings of simple days in an old time village—people relaxing in hammocks, chatting with neighbours, the smell of baking bread, children laughing as they play games or ride bicycles on quiet streets or in gardens.

Foluke’s mother is pleased with the effect her son’s love affair with the pan has had on him.

“It helps him to settle down some more,” she says. “And he teaches Sadiki, who is four. It brings them closer together as brothers.”

Foluke and his two brothers love to ride their bikes on the track that leads to their home. On late afternoons into evening the clatter of wheels can be heard, along with tiny voices calling out to each other while dogs bark at the heightened activity.

Taking a pause from his bike riding one afternoon, Foluke sat to chat with me on a nearby curb.

Foluke: I can learn songs and play in places like the mall and Four Winds.

Me: What’s your favourite song to practise?

Foluke: All of them. Jehovah, Silent Night, Skanking Sweet, We Wish You A Merry Christmas . . . (He admits that he can’t recall all of the names).

Me: Are there any other instruments you want to play?

Foluke: I want to play drums and go to instrument classes for trumpet and piano. My big brother has a keyboard.

Me: What do you want to be when you grow up?

Foluke: A fireman. I like how they put out the fire. When I see them driving fast I want to be a firetruck man.

Me: Tell me about your two new puppies.

Foluke: We got them from our cousin. I named the boy Lucky and mummy named the girl Sparkle. We went on YouTube to find puppy names.

Me: What do you do with the pups?

Foluke: Mummy feeds them and we bathe them and play with them. We play fetch. We throw the bottle and they play with it.

Me: What do you like about riding your bike?

Foluke: It gives me plenty of exercise.

Me: What’s your favourite subject at school?

Foluke: Bible. (He attends Scarborough SDA Primary School).

Me: What do you like about Bible?

Foluke: Bible teaches you about God and helps you to teach other people about God.

Me: What can you teach me about God?

Foluke: He made the world. Jesus died on the cross for us, to save us from sin. Both of them can solve our problems.

Me: How do you talk with them?

Foluke: Say a prayer by kneeling down, put your hands together, close your eyes and start to pray. You can make up the words.

Me: Is God your friend?

Foluke: Yes.

I ask Foluke where he sees himself going with the pan as he gets better at it.

Foluke: I want to play everywhere in Trinidad and Tobago and I want to get more money.

Me: And what about playing in other countries?

Foluke: Yes. America and England. All over the world.

Me: What do Lucky and Sparkle think of your pan playing?

Foluke: They come by me and watch me when I play. They like the music.