At Prince George's Community College in Largo, Maryland, preparations are underway for an unusual concert.

That's a double tenor, and that's for here.

Oh, that's the one from the school.

Curry: The performance will feature several steelpan orchestras.

Steelpan is a percussion instrument that is tuned to play notes.

Smaller pans play higher notes.

Bigger pans play lower notes.

Malika Green: It's very easy to learn.

I think that's what attracts so many people of different ages to it.

You can start to teach them pretty quickly the hierarchy of an ensemble.

You have melody, you have accompaniment part, you have a bass part and a groove.

Because it's percussion and you don't have to worry about your tuning, you can teach them improvisation really early on.

Clement: Yeah.

That's good.

That's good.

Let's do that a few more times, so we can feel that.

Curry: The instrument is most associated with calypso and soca, styles of music from Trinidad and Tobago, where the instrument was invented.

But the goal of this performance is to upend expectations.

Clement: OK, not no slow tempo neither.

Steelpan is an instrument that can play any genre of music and play it properly.

♪ I want the audience to understand the range of pan and still enjoy the intensity that it provides.

[Rhythmic clapping] Good, good, good.

So we good on that?

Curry: The concert also celebrates the 30th anniversary of a Mount Rainier, Maryland-based student enrichment program tied to learning steelpan... Instructor: C, A, A... Curry: the Cultural Academy for Excellence, CAFE for short.

Lorna Green: The mission is to enhance academics through arts and education and to build future leaders.

Education is not putting into kids.

Education is drawing out of kids, making them understand themselves.

You have to understand what is the best way for you to learn.

[Indistinct chatter] Christian Nanton: I started playing steelpan when I was, like, seven.

My mom knew somebody who was involved with this group CAFE, so she just decided to put me in, and here I am.

Clement: This is the last group, so get ready.

So tomorrow, make sure it's faster, right?

Nanton: It's hard to keep up because my bandmates are really good, so I feel like it's good.

I like for them to challenge me and, like, inspire me to, like, do better myself.

Bryce Collins: I started playing the steelpan when I was five.

CAFE isn't just steelpan.

The group is just, like, very encouraging on different aspects of life.

All right, so we can start in.

Collins: My mom started playing after I joined CAFE.

The parents just wanted to play because they liked it.

But it's exercise, it's mental, but it's also good for the kids to work with the adults in respect building relationships, and that's what we do.

Curry: Steelpan is one of a handful of musical instruments invented in the 20th century, but its roots go back to the transatlantic slave trade.

Malika Green: Trinidad was one of the places where Christopher Columbus landed upon.

Slaves that were eventually brought to the island were not allowed to play drums.

Colonizers quickly found out wherever slaves were in the Americas, they used percussion and drums to communicate.

Curry: Prevented from making drums, they invented an instrument they called tamboo bamboo.

Malika Green: They would cut these bamboo stalks to different lengths and hit them on the side and sing traditional call and response.

Because of the fragility of these percussion instruments, they started integrating other objects.

So this is early 1900s, so pieces off of cars, biscuit tins, trash lids.

Trinidad is an oil-producing country and one of the largely discarded items is an oil drum.

By the late 1930s, you had a lot of people who were realizing that they could get different tones out of this oil barrel.

♪ By the forties, there was a band on Carnival, and by the late fifties, you had full ensembles.

1962 was when Trinidad gained its independence.

And in 1963 was the first Panorama, which was huge, because that's a island-wide competition.

In less than 30 years, this thing went from some young men playing on the street to being recognized internationally.

But also the government is supporting it and saying, "This is something that we want to represent our arts."

♪ And now it's in schools.

[Chuckling] So it's come a long way.

That's a double stand.

Just take your pan.

Curry: Before there was a Cultural Academy For Excellence, there was a steelpan summer camp in Trinidad run by musician Maureen Clement.

My sister was working with Mrs.

Green, and she said, "My sister has a camp "and your daughter is very musical.

So why don't you send her?"

You know.

And she did.

Malika Green: I was a very quiet child.

I was very shy.

I was doing very traditional piano lessons, so everything was like Mozart, Bach, Debussy.

But in steel band, I was playing R&B, I was playing Latin music, it was like a whole new world of social connections... a whole new world of music.

Curry: Malika Green returned to the U.S.

with a pair of pans and an obsession that started to affect her grades.

Malika Green: I was playing with a local band called Pan Masters.

And I remember being in tears.

Like, "This is not fair that "I can't go to steel band rehearsal just 'cause, you know, I got a bad progress report."

I think that's what it was, like.

It definitely pushed me to do what I needed to do to make sure that I could be a part of that environment.

Lorna Green: The student that left me was very different from the student that came back to me.

And that's what made me think that if it worked for her, it could work for other kids.

All of a sudden... [Chuckles] there was an after-school program.

The music was in our home, but then we would go to another neighbor's house for art.

We would go to another neighbor's house for dance.

We also had history.

It was like outside, just outside in the backyard.

The community part wasn't so much about the music, but it was about the learning.

I have you in check.

Malika Green: It was also about Black heritage, Black legacy, Black history, and most of the students were of Afro-Caribbean descent.

And so all of us were getting this education that we weren't necessarily getting in school or maybe not even in our homes either.

What did you play... Malika Green: CAFE is more diverse now, but all of the students are receiving this information that is not available in other spaces.

Here you are.

[Indistinct conversations] Nanton: That's really spiffy.

That's the word of the day, guys, spiffy.

Curry: To showcase the instrument's potential, CAFE students and alumni are performing an overture by the 19th-century Italian opera composer Gioachino Rossini.

The stakes are high because classical music is Mrs.

Green's favorite, and this concert is also a tribute to her.

I don't have a lot of time onstage today to say thank you to everybody.

[Chokes up] [Chuckling] Lorna Green: It's a tough time for me.

I'm retiring.

I cannot run day to day, but just want everybody to enjoy what it is we're trying to tell them and the experience.

I love you all, and thank you.

Don't cry for now.

I want to get it out.

You're never gonna get it out.

You've gonna have more.

This is one of the legs of the stools of this organization.

This is the woman here.

You're going to have more days.

Before this I was in Trinidad with her, looking at how to do this program.

[Cheering] Thank you all.

Thank you, thank you.

Students: Thank you.

There comes a time when you have to step back and so on.

And this is her time.

And I am pleased that I'm here to honor her by just assisting her.

I can honor her with my labor.

[Chuckles] Now, what you're singing don't have to be in tune.

It just has to be rhythmically correct, OK?

1, 2.

[Students vocalizing] Nanton: I like our chemistry.

I like how we just, like, know each other very well and we're not just bandmates.

We're, like, really close friends, and you don't feel judged if you're, like, doing terribly, like I think I'm doing sometimes.

[Student vocalizes loudly] [Laughter] Clement: All right.

So now we're ready.

Now we're ready.

♪ Nanton: It's very technically demanding because, like, of the tempo changes.

We have the conductor, so we have to actually look up and not just at our music.

So it's like you have to focus on both.

It's a lot to go through.

And, like, actually, you have to be very present for that type of song.

♪ Shiloh Browne: They told us, "You guys need to, like, look a little happy," 'cause sometimes I am a little too focused to the point where I don't smile.

Like, it's just, I'm in the zone.

I don't smile, I don't think about smile.

I'm just playing the music.

♪ [Piece ends, cheering and applause] I am an alumni of CAFE, so, you know, this concert was just a blast from the past.

There's no telling what I would have been into without CAFE on a Saturday.

[Applause] Browne: "Soca Warriors" is the last song of the show.

It's very high energy.

It's very technical.

I definitely think everybody's about to be out their seat.

I don't think nobody's really going to be in their seat for that.

♪ Collins: We usually end with "Pandemonium," but now that we ended with "Soca Warriors," I had to find some energy left in the tank.

Gotta go to reserves.

♪ Malika Green: I know my mom had a great time.

To be honored but also to see all the kids come back--alums and having parents give testimonies.

You know, people took the time to show her that her work mattered in their life.

So it's a good day for sure.

♪ Clement: It's never perfect.

But it can be exhilarating, and that's what I wanted for the performers.

♪ Nanton: I love just the way we play together, and I feel like we just did our best.

We just get to have these amazing moments and memories forever.

So I really appreciate CAFE and Ms.

Green for all this.

♪ Lorna Green: My last words are to enjoy themselves and show them what you can do, to embrace it as their music and their instrument.

And I have no doubt CAFE's legacy will continue.

♪ [Piece ends, crowd cheering] Curry: For more about the Cultural Academy For Excellence's steelpan classes, academic enrichment programs, volunteer opportunities, and upcoming performances, go to cafeyouth.org.