The University of East London will be hosting the 5^th biennial Steel Pan Conference over the weekend of 11-12^th October. This collaborative project aims to bring together academics and practitioners to examine the ways in which the three strands of the Caribbean Carnival arts (pan, masquerade and calypso) are interwoven and have been adapted and adopted around the globe. Outside of its home country — Trinidad — pan in particular has suffered from a lack of academic attention despite long traditions in other Caribbean islands, the USA and UK — a deficit this series of conferences has attempted to address. City University PhD student Rachel Hayward has been invited to give the opening paper entitled ‘Yellow Bird’ and Pan: Caribbean Musical Migrations based upon research undertaken for her recently submitted thesis. Also a respected performer, Rachel will be performing The Birmingham Spirituals by Patrick Larley which includes a specially composed part for solo pan within the orchestra. The work will be performed along with other solo pan transcriptions at St Paul’s Church, Chichester on 4^th October.