KEVON FELMINE

Se­nior Re­porter

kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt

It was a steel­pan cel­e­bra­tion at Skin­ner Park, San Fer­nan­do, on Mon­day night as the young women of Holy Faith Con­vent, Pe­nal, stole the show, cap­tur­ing yet an­oth­er Na­tion­al Schools Panora­ma ti­tle in the Sec­ondary Schools cat­e­go­ry.

Screams pierced the night as flags and ban­ners waved wild­ly when the an­nounc­ers re­vealed the re­sults. The cel­e­bra­tions capped a long, warm day in San Fer­nan­do, where ten bands from across the coun­try bat­tled for the cov­et­ed ju­nior crown.

The fi­nals un­fold­ed as a south­ern show­down, with the top three fin­ish­ers all past cham­pi­ons. Holy Faith Con­vent nar­row­ly edged out a soul­ful per­for­mance from NAPS Com­bined Steel Or­ches­tra by just four points, while Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege Steel Or­ches­tra of San Fer­nan­do, de­liv­er­ing a thrilling set, se­cured third place.

Per­form­ing tenth, the Con­vent girls, dressed in strik­ing red and white, brought David Rud­der’s 2015 hit, Live Your Life Like You’re Play­ing Mas, to life. From the open­ing notes, en­er­gy surged through the stands as the band rocked the stage with pre­ci­sion and con­fi­dence. Every sec­tion moved in har­mo­ny, with gui­tar pans and bass lines oc­ca­sion­al­ly step­ping for­ward to car­ry their own melodies.

The arrange­ment went be­yond rep­e­ti­tion, weav­ing in el­e­ments of oth­er so­ca tunes and even hints of Asian mu­si­cal styles. Frol­ick­ing, chant­i­ng, and an­i­mat­ed move­ment re­vealed a group of young en­ter­tain­ers ful­ly im­mersed in their craft. Tra­di­tion­al Car­ni­val char­ac­ters and dancers en­hanced the vi­su­al spec­ta­cle, and by the fi­nal note, the pan­nists stood vis­i­bly proud of their ex­e­cu­tion.

Mu­sic teacher and arranger Neil Si­mon de­scribed the vic­to­ry as hard-fought and deeply emo­tion­al.

“I am usu­al­ly not emo­tion­al, but this one re­al­ly caught me off guard. I am just hap­py for the girls be­cause I pushed them be­yond their lim­its. They worked hard, and I think our best per­for­mance of this song was tonight on stage. They re­al­ly per­formed and turned on the en­er­gy, and I just ap­pre­ci­ate it,” Si­mon said.

Si­mon ex­plained that the fi­nal song choice came af­ter some un­cer­tain­ty. They ini­tial­ly re­hearsed a dif­fer­ent se­lec­tion, but it did not feel right. While dri­ving home, he heard Live Your Life Like You’re Play­ing Mas on the ra­dio and con­nect­ed with its mes­sage.

Al­though not the most pop­u­lar choice, Si­mon said the song spoke pow­er­ful­ly to Trinidad and To­ba­go’s mul­ti­cul­tur­al so­ci­ety and its call for uni­ty. With the odds stacked against them, he be­lieved in the pow­er of mu­sic to car­ry that mes­sage.

Ec­sta­t­ic arts teacher Solane Woodroffe-Charles de­scribed the win as well de­served.

“A lot of hard work went in­to this, and it is unimag­in­able, but we are ex­treme­ly proud of our girls,” Woodroffe-Charles said. She praised Mr Si­mon’s ef­forts and looks for­ward to big­ger and bet­ter things, in­clud­ing a ti­tle de­fence in 2027.

Prepa­ra­tion be­gan last term and con­tin­ued through the Christ­mas va­ca­tion.

The band ex­plored sev­er­al songs, in­clud­ing Free­town Col­lec­tive’s Take Me Home and Ex­plain­er’s Lor­raine, be­fore set­tling on Rud­der’s piece.

Woodroffe-Charles de­scribed Si­mon as an arranger will­ing to piv­ot and think cre­ative­ly. “As time goes by, tem­po builds, every­body gets en­gaged, and we just lick it up.”

NAPS Com­bined Steel Or­ches­tra, with the girls in teal blous­es and the boys in blue trop­i­cal shirts, de­liv­ered a spir­it­ed ren­di­tion of Voice’s 2017 hit Piece of Mind. Singing along as they played, the band pro­duced crisp notes from well-tuned pans in a melo­di­ous, crowd-pleas­ing arrange­ment.

Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege Steel Or­ches­tra de­buted arranger Daron Roberts with a smooth, en­er­getic per­for­mance of Kes The Band’s 2015 so­ca an­them Fallin’. The arrange­ment flowed seam­less­ly, prompt­ing the Skin­ner Park crowd to sing along. Like the oth­er top bands, the per­for­mance blend­ed mul­ti­ple mu­si­cal styles de­signed to keep feet mov­ing.

Speak­ing af­ter the com­pe­ti­tion, Min­is­ter of Ed­u­ca­tion Dr Michael Dowlath said host­ing the event at Skin­ner Park cre­at­ed a safe space for chil­dren. He en­cour­aged par­ents to take their chil­dren out for Car­ni­val while pri­ori­tis­ing safe­ty.

“I think it is fan­tas­tic; there was so much joy and hap­pi­ness at the par­tic­i­pa­tion, es­pe­cial­ly from the spe­cial schools. We are re­al­ly proud of their ef­forts,” Dowlath said.

He al­so re­mind­ed par­ents and chil­dren to look out for one an­oth­er, em­pha­sis­ing that while Car­ni­val is a joy­ous ex­pe­ri­ence, safe­ty must re­main para­mount.