Young Audiences’ artist roster includes professional teaching artists who are both highly skilled in their art form and passionate about engaging students in learning through their art. Our artists are experts at highlighting the natural connections between their art and the curriculum, including everything from world history to math to literature. Every Young Audiences program both shares skills specific to dance, music, theatre, or visual arts and offers students the opportunity to learn about other curricular subjects in a new way.

For Young Audiences artist Kevin Martin, art links directly to science. Kevin is an artist who specializes in building and playing the steel drum, an instrument that requires a vast amount of scientific knowledge in its production. Kevin was recently interviewed in Trumpf Express, a magazine dedicated to sheet metal processing, for his scientific expertise. In the article, Kevin points to studying the carbon content and thickness of the metal as well as balancing strength and flexibility as some of the essential aspects of creating a drum.

Kevin brings steel drum music into schools through assembly performances and hands-on workshops with students and educators. During residency programs like the Steel Drum Experience and professional development programs for educators, such as Steel Drums in the Classroom and The Physics of Steel Drums, Kevin brings dozens of steel drums into the classroom so students and teachers can try their hand at playing the instrument and experience how physics concepts play a role in the sound of the drum. As Trumpf Express notes, “last year, he visited 100 schools with up to 100 students at a time, and thanks [Young Audiences], Kevin is able to provide many with drums of their own.”

Though Kevin is accomplished in both the science side of production and the artistic side of playing, when asked what he loves to do most, Kevin responded, “I love all of it.”

Read the full article by clicking on the image below.

Watch Kevin speak about his passion for steel drums at TEDxChesterRiver here.

Read more blog posts about Kevin Martin here.