Robert Greenidge, the in­ter­na­tion­al­ly ac­claimed steel­pan vir­tu­oso, arranger and com­pos­er whose artistry helped el­e­vate Trinidad and To­ba­go’s na­tion­al in­stru­ment to glob­al recog­ni­tion, died to­day af­ter a pro­longed ill­ness. He was 76.

For more than half a cen­tu­ry, Greenidge stood as one of the steel­pan’s most in­flu­en­tial am­bas­sadors—an artiste whose tech­ni­cal bril­liance, mu­si­cal imag­i­na­tion and ver­sa­til­i­ty con­nect­ed pa­n­yards with pres­ti­gious con­cert halls, record­ing stu­dios and fes­ti­val stages.

Born on April 28, 1950, in Suc­cess Vil­lage, Laven­tille, Greenidge grew up in a work­ing-class com­mu­ni­ty where pan, Car­ni­val and cul­tur­al re­silience formed the fab­ric of dai­ly life. He was in­tro­duced to the in­stru­ment at the age of eight un­der the guid­ance of his un­cle, Carl Greenidge, and start­ed an in­for­mal ap­pren­tice­ship in the Savoy Steel Or­ches­tra be­fore join­ing Des­per­a­does Steel Or­ches­tra in his late teens.