Apr 11, 2013 1 min read

The Washington High School steel drum band will perform at 4 p.m. Sunday at Hickory United Evangelical Presbyterian Church, 210 Main St.

The concert is free, but a free-will offering will be accepted. A reception will be held after the concert.

The steel band was formed in 1985 when the music director asked the band parents to purchase a “starter” set of instruments called “pans.” That four-voice set has grown to 33 sets of pans and represents one of a select number of schools in the United States that offers steel band in the curriculum.

The group was featured at the Pennsylvania Music Educators Convention in 1989, 1990 and 1997, and was chosen to perform at the Music Educators National Convention in Boston in 1989, Washington, D.C., in 1990, Springfield, Mass., in 1993 and Baltimore in 1997. They were the first steel band to be chosen to play at the Mid-West International Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago in 1992.

In 1995, the band represented the state of Pennsylvania at the 50th anniversary of VE Day Celebrations in Europe.