‘We need a home’

The group, which won alongside cultural giants such as Irwin “Scrunter” Reyes Johnson and Timothy “Baron” Watkins Jr, received the award at last evenings’s National Awards of Trinidad and Tobago ceremony at Queen’s Hall, St Ann’s.

Speaking with Newsday yesterday before the ceremony, coordinator of the group Rosemarie Abraham said the journey to this point did not happen overnight.

“It has been a journey from since 2002 and it has had its ups and downs but we really wouldn’t have made it without our support system which (consists of) the parents of the students in the group,” she said. The achievement is very rewarding, Abraham stated, because they all “feel appreciated” for the hard work put in by everyone.

Abraham also stated that she hopes “other orchestras emulate (the) programme” and “develop their own players” and to look at steelpan as more than just a Panorama instrument. She urges bands to engage other genres within their sets and, thus, showcase the versatility of the pan.

She hopes the achievement will encourage persons to “use pan as a media to assist with discipline” since “pan does not get the recognition it deserves here.” Though they have performed internationally in places such as Carnegie Hall, New York and Orlando, Florida , the group finds themselves in a similar situation to that of panside Birdsong.

“We are also looking for a home…we have problems practising in school especially when it’s coming down to Panorama,” Abraham said. It is the band’s dream to open their very own pan theatre, preferably in the Belmont area, where they will be able to conduct sufficient rehearsals. “We are sorry about what is happening with Birdsong and we hope everything works out with them but we need a home too,” Abraham commented.

In her closing remarks, Abraham said the group was “ever grateful” to Methanol Holdings Limited for sponsoring their trip to Carnegie Hall last year noting that if it wasn’t for the company stepping in, the performance would not have happened. She also gave praise to Marva Benjamin who was the school’s acting principal in 2002, when the band was formed. Through her assistance with funding and investment in the pan group, the school was able to form the ensemble, according to Abraham.

The group is scheduled to perform in Canada and Los Angeles next year and Prague in 2018.