Le`Roi Simmonds is a steel pan artist from St. Thomas, Virgin Islands,

with a Bachelor's Degree in Pop Music from Florida Memorial University, and

a Masters Degree in Jazz Studies from New York University. At the age of

ten, Le`Roi started playing the steel pan with the Downstreet

Pandemonium Steel Orchestra. Today, as an adult he specializes in

performance, arranging, and education. Le`Roi presently works for the VI

Superior Court Rising Stars Steel Orchestra as an Instructor/Arranger where

he and his colleagues are always working hard mentoring the youth of the

Virgin Islands using the steel pan, to keep children off the streets and in

school.

With over 20 years of experience, Le`Roi has traveled around the

Caribbean and the United States, winning various awards, such as the

Virginia Panorama Caribbean Festival, Florida Memorial University Research

and Performing Arts Day in Miami, the Music USA Festival in Orlando, and the

Trinidad and Tobago National Junior Steel Band Panorama to name a few.

Some of Simmonds recorded works include steel bands such as the Rising

Stars Youth Steel Orchestra (St. Thomas), E. Benjamin Oliver Steel Owls

(St. Thomas), Florida Memorial Steel Band (Miami), and St. Margaret’s Steel

Orchestra (Trinidad). Le’Roi Simmonds is the Steelpan Director at the University of the Virgin Islands and teaches at Bertha C. Boschulte Middle School in St. Thomas USVI.

NLCB PanoGrama 2021 | Semis - Leroi Simmonds

https://www.facebook.com/reel/844649540642994

Le’Roi speaks about:

Pan in the United States Virgin Islands (USVI)

Musicians - Leon “Foster” Thomas, Collins Peters, Melton Mustafa,

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