The Blazing Sun Steel Pan Orchestra, a Bates College student ensemble directed by Shawn Thwaites, performs in concert at 8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 21, in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall, 75 Russell St.

Thwaites, new to the Bates music faculty this academic year, will play steel pan as well as direct the ensemble. His brothers Sheldon and Sherwin will perform as special guests. Also featured is Greg Waters, a Bates sophomore who plays saxophone. The public is invited to attend the concert at no cost. For more information, please call 207-786-6135.

His first semester with the Bates steel band, says Thwaites, “has been a blast.” He is an alumnus of Berklee College Of Music, in Boston, and was one of the first to graduate from there with the steel pan as principal instrument.

Thwaites is the founder and director of Pan United Youth Movement, a nonprofit organization in Newark, N.J., that offers comprehensive Caribbean steel-drum instruction to young people. The organization’s broader aim is to use the performing arts as a means to building confidence and leadership skills.

The Blazing Sun program includes music by reggae legend Bob Marley, jazzman Sonny Rollins, calypso pioneer Lord Kitchener and the Thwaites brothers.

Offering music from Caribbean, Indonesian and African traditions, this year’s World Music Weekend at Bates takes place Friday through Sunday, March 4-6, in the Olin Arts Center, 75 Russell St.

Performers include the college’s steel pan and gamelan ensembles, Auburn violinist Greg Boardman, and Jordan Messan Benissan, a drummer from Togo, West Africa. Admission is free and open to the public. For more information, please call 207-786-6135.

“The Bates music department is committed to broadening our students’ exposure to live music from traditions outside of Western popular and art musics,” says Gina Fatone, visiting assistant professor of music. “That’s what this weekend is about.”

World Music Weekend opens at 8 p.m. Friday with a concert in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall. The performers are the Gamelan Mawar Mekar, a percussion-based orchestra playing the gamelan music of Java, Indonesia; the Blazing Sun Steel Pan Orchestra, performing Caribbean pan music; and Boardman, who will join the gamelan on a piece by renowned composer Lou Harrison.

Starting at 2 p.m. Saturday, two Bates seniors discuss their musical research. Gregory Rosenthal of Schenectady, N.Y., begins with a talk titled Courtship Rituals of the Yi People of China. At 3 p.m., Joseph Maurey of Germantown, Tenn., offers the lecture From Calypso to Symphony, looking at the musical traditions of Trinidad.

The location of the talks is Olin’s Room 105.

On Sunday, following a drumming workshop, Benissan and his band Sankofa perform at 7:30 p.m. in the concert hall, combining modern and traditional rhythms and songs. Steeped in the music of the Ewe people, Benissan has performed and given workshops throughout the United States to children and adults. He lives in Waterville.

His recordings include “Beautiful Music from West Africa,” nominated for Best World Music by Phoenix Magazine, and “Let Me Play My Music,” featured as an Open Mic selection on National Public Radio’s “All Songs Considered” program. Benissan’s fourth album is slated for release this summer.