OSteel Introduces Elementary Students to Steel Pan

Members of Oberlin Steel (OSteel) will visit nearby Wellington, Ohio, on April 8 to participate in an educational workshop that will introduce students at Westwood Elementary School to the steel pan and the music of Trinidad and Tobago. The workshop is organized through Ohio Regional Music Arts and Cultural Outreach (ORMACO), an all-volunteer nonprofit organization based in Medina, Ohio, with several ties to Oberlin College.

ORMACO’s mission is to make music, arts, and culture accessible to all, with a focus on minority, disadvantaged, and rural populations. The nonprofit was founded in 2010 by Thomas Sigel ’86, who recognized a lack of music, arts, and cultural programs in areas outside of Cleveland.

In fall 2014, Sigel met Beth Blissman, director of the Bonner Center for Service and Learning (BCSL) at a campus event. Blissman introduced Sigel to Eric Steggall, Oberlin’s managing director of theater, dance and opera, who is now on the ORMACO Board of Trustees. Since their meeting, Sigel, Steggall, and Blissman have established an ORMACO winter term arts administration internship and organized outreach programs—like the upcoming OSteel workshop—to encourage Oberlin College students with interest in the arts to share their passion and knowledge in the greater Lorain County community.

“The workshops at Wellington with OSteel are just the beginning,” Sigel says. “We [at ORMACO] hope to have many more student groups involved in providing other outreach programs throughout Lorain and surrounding counties where there is a definite thirst for the arts.”

Learn more about ORMACO on its website or by calling 330-722-2541.