It is now of­fi­cial, Du­vonne Dwayne Stew­art will take the bpTT Rene­gades Steel Or­ches­tra to the Sa­van­nah for Panora­ma 2K12. The pop­u­lar Char­lotte Street band has won the na­tion­al com­pe­ti­tion on nine oc­ca­sions, in­clud­ing a hat-trick be­tween 1995 and 1997, with arrange­ments by its for­mer mu­si­cal di­rec­tor, Dr Jit Sama­roo.Since Dr Sama­roo's re­tire­ment in 2007, the band has been out of the top three plac­ing, but ac­cord­ing to its pres­i­dent, Michael Mar­cano, is de­ter­mined to stick to its pol­i­cy of us­ing home grown arrangers.

Am­rit, son of Dr Sama­roo, worked on the band's Panora­ma arrange­ments in 2008 and 2009; Ken­neth Gup­py took over in 2010 and 2011; now its Stew­art's turn to show what he is made of, quipped Mar­cano. Sama­roo, Gup­py, and Stew­art are all for­mer play­ers with the band, and to­geth­er with Desmond Wait­he, have worked on the band's stage-side, Pan in the 21 Cen­tu­ry, and Steel­band Mu­sic Fes­ti­val pre­sen­ta­tions.Hailed from To­ba­go, Stew­art came to Trinidad at the age of 18 and be­came a mem­ber of the Rene­gades Steel Or­ches­tra. He was schooled in mu­sic the­o­ry and prac­ti­cal pi­ano from the age of six and learnt to mas­ter the steel­pan at age eight, play­ing with the To­ba­go All Stars Steel Or­ches­tra in 1986.

He won the Trinidad and To­ba­go Tele­vi­sion's 12 and Un­der com­pe­ti­tion and was award­ed a trip to Dis­ney Land. This trip mo­ti­vat­ed him to en­ter the Trinidad and To­ba­go Steel Pan Ju­nior Soloist com­pe­ti­tion in 1987, where he placed fifth.Since then, he has par­tic­i­pat­ed in and won sev­er­al soloist com­pe­ti­tions, in­clud­ing the Teen Tal­ent com­pe­ti­tion, the To­ba­go Mu­sic Fes­ti­val, and the San Fer­nan­do Mu­sic Fes­ti­val, which he won for four con­sec­u­tive years-from 1989 to 1992. In 1992, he al­so par­tic­i­pat­ed in the Trinidad and To­ba­go School's Mu­sic Fes­ti­val as a soloist and placed third.

He fol­lowed this in 1993 with an ap­pear­ance at the World Steel Pan Fes­ti­val where he placed fifth. In 1995, Stew­art won To­ba­go's Scout­ing for Tal­ent com­pe­ti­tion, and lat­er that year, won the Pan Ra­ma­jay Soloist com­pe­ti­tion, as well as the AVM Steel Pan Soloist com­pe­ti­tion. The fol­low­ing year he placed sec­ond in the Pan Ra­ma­jay com­pe­ti­tion and the soloist cat­e­go­ry of the World Steel Pan Fes­ti­val, two com­pe­ti­tions that he went on to win in 1998, 2000 and 2002.

Stew­art start­ed his own band, the NFM Pan­ta­sy, a six piece steel en­sem­ble in 2000, and thus be­gan his ca­reer as an arranger. In 2001, he arranged for the sin­gle pan band, La Hor­quet­ta (L.H.) Pan Groove in the Na­tion­al Panora­ma com­pe­ti­tion, and has since pi­lot­ed them to five con­sec­u­tive Panora­ma ti­tles be­tween 2006 and 2010-the on­ly arranger to achieve this feat in the his­to­ry of the com­pe­ti­tion.

In 2011 he again won the com­pe­ti­tion, this time ar­rang­ing for the San Juan East Side Sym­pho­ny Steel­band.Stew­art has arranged for sev­er­al oth­er con­ven­tion­al steel­bands in T&T in­clud­ing Mer­ry­tones, So­lo Pan Knights and Our Boys Steel Or­ches­tra. On the in­ter­na­tion­al front he has arranged for Har­mo­ny Steel Or­ches­tra in New York. Big Pan Pan Groove in Ger­many, Piton Di­a­mond Steel Or­ches­tra in St Lu­cia and Ca­lyp­so At­lantic, and Pan de Mon­tan­gac of France. He has al­so cap­tured first place 12 times at dif­fer­ent com­pe­ti­tions over the years.