I am proud to announce that Darren Dyke will be joining me as a tuner at Pantheon Steel.
Effective immediately, Darren will provide Halo tuning services in Europe from his home base in Brussels.
The addition of Darren to the family is a major milestone for Pantheon Steel. Since our inception, I have been the one and only tuner breathing life into the Halo.
Evolving the instrument towards my vision was without question the right way to start. But the vision Jim and I share has always indicated growth, when the time was right.
Today, the time is right.
When we introduced our professional tools for sale, I wrote that the world needs more tuners. That has become even more true as hundreds of Halos have found their way into the world. The Halo has proved to be very robust, but accidents happen, hands are sometimes heavy, and even well cared for instruments sometimes benefit from a little love.
As a result, demand for tuning services has slowly but surely increased.
We will be here to meet it. We hope to ensure that there is always proper care available for our own creations!
Adding tuners to share the workload is the right way forward. But as I also wrote, tuning is not for everyone. Indeed, finding the the right collaborator has been daunting.
But as with so many aspects of the Halo's growth, fate sometimes seems to work small miracles in our favor. Darren's coming to Pantheon Steel has happened quite naturally and we are very pleased about that.
Darren's initial role for Pantheon Steel will be to maintain and repair Halos. He will also be available to tune other handpans, at his personal discretion.
In the future, we have more ambitious plans... but more about that later.
For now, I'd like to let Pantheon Steel's new tuner, Darren Dyke, say a word about himself:
As a student of percussion, I have always been fascinated by the sounds instruments produce when struck. I was drawn to the sound of the steel pan from the first moment I played one; its harmonic complexity resonated deeply with me. For over 20 years as a performer, I had the opportunity to collaborate with many of the leading figures in the steel pan community.
The more I played, the more I wanted to understand the mechanics of the instrument, and that curiosity led me to study with my mentor, Ellie Mannette. Ellie, who is considered the father of the modern steel drum, graciously shared with me his unique tuning methods, methods which he has refined over 60-plus years as a pioneer in the art form. The warmth and richness of Ellie's instruments continue to inspire me as a craftsman and tuner.
My background as a steel pan tuner informs my appreciation for and approach to working with the handpan. Both instruments share a unique resonance, harmonic richness, and sonic complexity. As I venture into the rapidly evolving world of the handpan, I am grateful my foundation as a steel pan tuner. I am happy be working together with Kyle as part of Pantheon Steel to tune existing Halos and I look forward to contributing even more in the future.
Joining Kyle to care for the Halo and handpans generally feels like a very natural, and welcome, progression after 18 years of involvement in tuning and crafting steel pans.
I look forward to meeting you all, caring for your instruments, and doing my part to give more back to the traditions that have given me so much already.
