Like many students at the Frost School of Music, drummer Brenten Handfield’s first exposure to the program came at a young musicians’ summer camp on campus. But that 2018 encounter didn’t just introduce Handfield to the Frost School. It set him on a new musical path.
“That camp made the Frost School of Music where I wanted to go, and I worked my butt off to come here,” said Handfield, who will earn a bachelor’s from the Studio Music and Jazz program this May. “But that camp was how I got into jazz, too. It was also the first time I played music with people from outside my country, and it all came together.”
Born in Miami, Handfield grew up in the tiny Caribbean territory of the Turks and Caicos Islands. Before coming to the Frost School, Handfield’s earliest musical influence was his father, his music teacher. They frequently played together as he grew up and still do so whenever he’s back home, in a saxophone-steel pan duo called Saxopan Serenades.
“I never saw music as anything I was forced to do,” Handfield said. “I love playing with him, which I’ve been doing since I was nine or 10 years old. Drums have always been it for me, my first love. There’s a video of me at age one on the kit.”
At the Frost School, Handfield soon connected with Professor Etienne Charles, a jazz composer, musician, and native of Trinidad whose many accolades include a 2015 Guggenheim Fellowship, a 2017 NAACP Image Award, and a 2025 Anthony N Sagba Award for Caribbean Excellence. Their shared Caribbean heritage made for an ideal mentor-protégé relationship.
“Knowing him here makes me feel less alien,” said Handfield. “He’s given me a new perspective, the way he infuses jazz with his Caribbean heritage. I’ve spent extensive time with him and his ensembles, and we work together every chance we get.”
Charles also leads the highly acclaimed jazz sextet Creole Soul, which has topped the jazz charts. He thinks enough of Handfield to use him as one of Creole Soul’s drummers since his sophomore year, with notable gigs including last October at New York City’s Lincoln Center and a homecoming show in Trinidad. Charles praises his student as a quick study with a clean sound, a penchant for detail, and familiarity with Caribbean grooves.
“I do make sure to mentor young Caribbean musicians as I know what it’s like to come to this country and have to figure things out musically and socially,” said Charles. “It is a culture shock, but that’s part of the process. Ten or 15 years from now, Brenten will have his own students playing in his band touring, same as when I was a college student getting my butt kicked in the groups of Leon Anderson, Marcus Roberts, Rodney Jordan, Monty Alexander, and Roberta Flack. The cycle continues.”
In Miami, Handfield also plays in the groups Nu Deco Orchestra and Swamp Lilly, and last year he played with the Frost Septet in a program at his old high school in Turks and Caicos. But in the run-up to graduation, school is his main focus. After that, he plans to eventually start working on a master’s degree.
“Being at the Frost School has helped me understand my own playing a lot more,” said Handfield. “It helped me figure out certain things I was doing without knowing where they came from. It has expanded my language on the instrument and put me on a trajectory. Lately, I’ve been taking music business classes, preparing me for different things I’ll need to branch into. Frost is teaching me skills I will carry through my life as a musician.”
