Mat Britain, Alli Puglisi

Teaches at Osher Lifelong Learning Institute

Mat Britain has pursued his love of percussion from the plains of Kansas to the island of Trinidad. He has traveled numerous times to Trinidad and performed with the Amoco/BP Renegades Steel Band at the prestigious Panorama Festival, most recently for Panorama 2013. Living in Nashville, Tennessee, he directs the Vanderbilt University Steel Drum Band program and leads his professional steel band “Deep Grooves”. His recorded efforts include the steel drum solos on the quadruple platinum hits “When The Sun Goes Down” and “Shift Work” by mega-star Kenny Chesney as well as recent Chesney CD releases “Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates”, “Be As You Are” (Songs from an Old Blue Chair), and “The Road & the Radio”. Mat has shared the stage and/or recording studio with music industry veterans such as Grammy Award winning artists Lee Greenwood, Neal McCoy, Charley Pride, and Louise Mandrell, as well as Nashville’s newest stars the Warren Brothers, Rebecca Lynn Howard and Steve Azar. Mat has the musical distinction of being the first percussionist to grace the famous Grand Ole Opry stage with Latin percussion instruments such as congas, bongos, and timbales. Mat is indeed an All-American percussionist with a global perspective that permeates his grooves, style, and musicianship.