MIA   KRYSTAL  GORMANDY-BENJAMIN
DATE OF BIRTH: August 27, 1988
PLACE OF BIRTH: Port-of-Spain, Trinidad
EDUCATION:
  • Bachelor of Music (2009, Northern Illinois University, Illinois, USA)
  • Master of Music in Steelpan Performance (2011, Northern Illinois University Illinois, USA)
  • Master of Music (2013, Northern Illinois University Illinois, USA)
  • Doctor of Philosophy in Ethnomusicology (2017 Florida State University, Florida, USA)
    • STEELBANDS:
  • Trinidad All Stars
    • SPECIALTIES:
  • Player
  • Arranger
  • Conductor
  • Educator
    • CAREER:                                       In 1995, Gormandy began taking music lessons on both the piano and the steelpan and, by 1998, had received a "Pan Minors Scholarship" sponsored by The Republic Bank Ltd. of Trinidad and Tobago to pursue advanced studies on the steelpan at the Creative Arts Centre, University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad. In 2000, she won the "Something Positive" steelpan competition at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, New York, USA, and Citibank's Twelve & Under playing "Ever Green" and "Masquerade." In 2001, she performed as a soloist with the Trinidad All Stars Steelband during its tour of Australia, and won both the Pan in Schools and Pan Trinbago Junior steelpan competitions, a feat that she repeated in 2003. Also in 2003, her performance of Rimsky Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumble Bee," landed her in 2nd Place at the Hal Jackson's Talented Teens International Scholarship Competition" in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands, and first place in the Caribbean Junior Pan Festival in Antigua. Performing "Flight of the Bumble Bee," Gormandy teamed up with St. Joseph's Convent as the Trinidad & Tobago representatives to take 2nd Place at the International Youth Music Festival in Vienna, Austria.

                                          Mia Gormandy-Benjamin is an Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT) who has performed in Austria, Australia, England, Japan, the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean. She has received several grants, including the Howard Mayer Brown Fellowship from the American Musicological Society, and the Carol Krebs Research Fellow Award, from the Florida State University. She is the co-founder of the Virtual Steelband, a global steelpan project, and is a television commentator for the annual Steelpan Panorama competition. In 2017, she arranged "Pan Kingdom" for the Birdsong Steelband in the Panorama competition.
    AWARDS: Her numerous awards include:
    • 2001 - Myrna Huggins Wood House Memorial Trophy (for Excellence in Music - pan and piano), by St. Joseph's Convent, Port of Spain, Trinidad
    • 2002 - Dennis Kerr Cup (for Most Outstanding Instrumental Performance with her rendition of "Flight of the Bumble Bee)
    Compiled by Ronald C. Emrit