At this weekend’s Autumn Leaves, an annual showcase of steelpan performance, the audience will be treated to the spanking new invention called the P.H.I. pan, or Percussive Harmonic Instrument, and pronounced “fie”.

Steel pan lovers have already heard and seen the e-pan or electronic pan, invented here in Toronto. P.H.I goes several steps further according to its chief developer Professor Brian Copeland of the University of the West Indies Steel Pan Research Laboratories, who developed the PHI and the G-Pan, another innovative product for which he was given a National Award in T&T. The PHI will be used for the first time in a major concert outside of Trinidad right here in Toronto on November 5 at the Armenian Youth Center, 50 Hallcrown Place. Here, Professor Copeland (far right), who has spent the past week conducting workshops on the PHI and other pan innovations, is pictured with some of the participants in the Autumn Leaves show, from left Earl La Pierre Jr., Allende Lee Lung, Darren Sheppard and Jason Josseph, during a visit and demonstration of the PHI pan at The Camera’s office earlier this week. Tickets for Autumn Leaves can be obtained by calling 416-525-2391