Since our founding in 2018, Tin Cups has brought the joy of steel pan to audiences across Minnesota and instilled a lifelong love of pan in all of our performers. At over a dozen parades each summer, we perform a diverse repertoire of music including Trinidadian soca and calypso tunes that are sure to get everyone dancing as well as familiar pop and rock tunes that have audiences everywhere singing along. You wouldn’t be able to tell after hearing us perform, but many of our members have never played a steel pan before and some have never played an instrument at all! As an award-winning ensemble, providing our audience with an incredible performance is very important to us, but equally important to us is providing our community with an accessible, approachable, and stress-free environment to learn steel pans.
Meet the Director
Olin Edwards
Olin Edwards is an active performer and educator across the Twin Cities area. A recent graduate from the University of Minnesota, Olin studied percussion while earning his undergraduate degree in music education. Throughout his time at the U of M, Olin performed with all of the university’s top ensembles, including four years with the Pride of Minnesota Marching Band. Olin was first introduced to steel drums in 2021 as a member of the Tin Cups Steel Drum Band. He joined the Pan-Handlers Steel Drum Band later that year and has continued to perform in both groups. In addition to his role as the director of Tin Cups, Olin also serves as the assistant director of the Pan-Handlers and occasionally teaches with Pan Outreach.
Outside of the steel pan, Olin works with middle and high school concert bands around the Twin Cities, writes shows for local marching bands, and directs several extracurricular ensembles for Woodbury High School. When he isn’t playing or teaching music, Olin enjoys hiking, playing board games, and working on crafts like woodworking and stained glass.
Our Instruments
The instruments used by The Tin Cups are Trinidadian steel drums, a relatively new instrument, which originated as nothing more than a series of notes shaped from the bottom of an old oil barrel! The steel drums, or pans, that we use today are of much higher quality than the typical oil barrel used to allow.
All of our pans are meticulously hand-crafted by master tuner and builder Steve Lawrie and by Tin Cups founder Jeremy Kunkel.
