When he began making steel pans in his basement at age 16, finishing a single pan took almost… When he began making steel pans in his basement at age 16, finishing a single pan took almost a month, or even longer if there were flaws that needed to be corrected.

After being in the professional steelpan business for 20 years, Phil Solomon can now make two or three drums in one day.

Originally from Guyana, Solomon — of Pittsburgh’s Solomon Steelpan Company — is revered as one of the world’s key steelpan technologists, known for producing, playing and publicizing the drums.

Solomon’s business is family-owned and family–operated. His four daughters — Jonnet, Fauna and Janera Soloman and Leigh Pugliano — work in the shop and are developing their tuning skills so they can play a bigger role in constructing and repairing the pans. Both Janera and Leigh are Pitt graduates, and Janera incorporated her family’s influence in a self-created major through the Caribbean studies department.

Solomon’s wife, Marilyn, handles management and marketing decisions, while employee Chris Hnat and apprentice Mike Skarvarka bang away behind the scenes by making the drums. Skarvarka, originally from Ohio, has apprenticed under Solomon for a year and hopes to continue working at Solomon Steelpan Company once his apprenticeship is complete.

Pittsburgh’s steel reputation attracted Solomon to the area, and he chose the city as the location to open a business centered on manufacturing steel drum sets and accessories. But he realized that without a market for his product, his business would not succeed.

In the past 10 years, he has focused on creating a market, working to create interest in steelpan music.

“It has its own way of advertising itself,” Solomon said, explaining that he cannot afford to expand promotion to television and other media. A respected business, a quasi-monopoly on the steelpan industry and a great deal of word-of-mouth advertising have reeled in some of Solomon’s biggest buyers. Schools, many in the ‘Burgh, are his biggest clients, though he gets customers from around the world.

Being the only steelpan manufacturer of notable caliber has created several opportunities for Solomon to expand his business. Drum tune-ups and maintenance account for 20 percent of his business, Solomon said. He makes an assortment of pan-related products, from drum stands to mallets to cases, and also gives music lessons. He charges $150 for six lessons, which he believes can give students knowledge about the entire personality of the drum. Students learn how to play, but they’re also taught about its origins and versatility.

Solomon explained that the instruments find “success in flexibility.” Though steel drums are most often associated with the up-tempo, rhythmic sounds of Calypso, Carnival and the Caribbean, they originated for the purpose of playing classical music. More and more schools are incorporating steel drum bands into their music departments because the technical instruction is very similar to that of standard band and orchestra teaching.

In addition to teaching, Solomon formed a steel band called Steel Impressions. With no public performances booked in the immediate future, the band performs for private functions like weddings and graduation parties.

An acclaimed composer and musician, Solomon’s most noteworthy efforts surfaced in steelpan design. He developed a way of balancing note arrangements from treble to bass and developed a synchronized note placement system that is now a standard in steelpan production.

Before Solomon’s innovation, notes on a pan were separated by grooves, which often caused cracking with time. Solomon’s system of grooveless toning avoids such damage and creates a clearer sound from each note.

Aside from the structure of the pans, Solomon advanced basic methods of production by incorporating air-hammers, which make banging out the drums less tiring and more efficient. He also began using leather-covered hammers to safeguard against pan spoilages like cracking.

Solomon played in a professional steel orchestra in Guyana when he was 14, and in 1966 he founded the Atlantic Symphony Orchestra, for which he composed all the music and made all the steelpans. The government of Guyana encouraged his innovative methods of production in the late ’60s, when officials asked him to research new steelband technology. Solomon was named “Musician of the Year” in 1971.