Cary Codrington attended Trinity College from 1970 to 1975. He holds a Grade II Solo Performance musical certificate from the University of the West Indies and a Grade V certificate from the Royal School of Music in England.
Cary’s love for music started as a child when he was taught to play the steelpan by Joseph and Addison Cummings in their back yard. In 1972 he began playing with the Starlift Steel Orchestra where his talent blossomed and his zeal and enthusiasm for the instrument and the music became evident in the way he enjoyed playing.
Cary started his band, the Codrington Pan Family with one tenor, entertaining passersby on the streets of Port of Spain in 1999. During the next few years, he acquired more instruments and expanded the band to include his wife and their six children.
The Codringtons have performed throughout Trinidad and Tobago and have travelled extensively, appearing at events in Antigua, Cuba, Venezuela, France, Japan and numerous venues throughout the United States of America.
They have played for celebrities, dignitaries and royalty including former Prime Minister of Malaysia, Abdullah Ahmed Badawi, Queen Elizabeth II of England, Andrew, Duke of York and King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sophia of Spain.
The Codrington Pan Family has a repertoire that includes Calypso, Soca, Reggae, Latin, Pop, Jazz, R&B and Classical music. The Band has won over 15 different steelpan and music competitions including the QRC Pan Jazz and We Beat Pan Ramajay. Their greatest achievement to date was being named as one of the top ten breakout acts at the South by South West Music Festival (SXSW) in Austin, Texas, in 2015 by the Star Tribune. This Music Festival is the largest of its kind in the world with over 2000 acts performing each year since 2014.
Today apart from being a steel orchestra, the family band has incorporated other musical instruments such as a keyboard, saxophone and trumpet. The Band aspires to perform music that touches the heart and sends a message of hope to broken homes.
Aside from being the Arranger and Musical Director of the Codrington Pan Family, Cary has arranged for bands in the national panorama competition. He has also arranged for schools that have won the school panorama and school steelband music festival competitions. In addition, he arranged for Courts Sound Specialists when they placed 4th in the World Steelband Music Festival in 2005 in Madison Square Garden, New York.
A simple and humble man, Cary espouses the virtues of family life which is evident by the close bonds of his own family but which he also shares with his young charges at the schools where he arranges. He hopes that his interaction with young people will help to carry on the legacy of steelband music and pan technology.
The Trinity College Alumni Association acknowledges the achievements Cary Codrington as a Musician, musical Director and cultural Ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago and readily admits him into its Hall of Fame.