SAN­DRA L BLOOD

Ryan Chaitram still re­mem­bers the pride he felt as a young pan­nist play­ing for Lee Chong’s Pan Glow. Though he nev­er played again af­ter that ear­ly ex­pe­ri­ence, the mem­o­ry stayed with him—a qui­et but last­ing con­nec­tion to the in­stru­ment that would even­tu­al­ly resur­face in an un­ex­pect­ed way.

Now, as Vice-Pres­i­dent of Com­mu­ni­ca­tions and Ex­ter­nal Af­fairs at bpTT, Chaitram finds him­self once again deeply con­nect­ed to the steel­pan, not as a mu­si­cian, but as a cham­pi­on of its cul­tur­al, eco­nom­ic, and trans­for­ma­tive pow­er.

As Pan Trin­ba­go cel­e­brates Steel­pan Month, Chaitram re­flects on the jour­ney that brought him back to pan.

“Per­haps it was di­vine in­ter­ven­tion,” he says of his re­turn to the na­tion­al in­stru­ment, this time through a lead­er­ship role that has po­si­tioned him and his com­pa­ny at the fore­front of pan ad­vo­ca­cy.

Steel­pan Month, first de­clared dur­ing the ad­min­is­tra­tion of the late Prime Min­is­ter Patrick Man­ning, has gained new mo­men­tum in re­cent years. Since Chaitram’s ap­point­ment in late 2020, he has wit­nessed piv­otal mile­stones, in­clud­ing:

The UN’s de­c­la­ra­tion of World Steel­pan Day (Au­gust 11); the of­fi­cial reg­is­tra­tion of pan as T&T’s na­tion­al in­stru­ment; and its recog­ni­tion with a Ge­o­graph­i­cal In­di­ca­tion des­ig­na­tion—all achieved in the past year.

Chaitram sees these as not just na­tion­al achieve­ments, but per­son­al ones as well.

“Steel­pan Month and the first an­niver­sary of pan as our na­tion­al in­stru­ment is more than a cel­e­bra­tion of cul­tur­al her­itage. It’s a reaf­fir­ma­tion of our col­lec­tive com­mit­ment to pre­serv­ing and pro­mot­ing one of the most icon­ic sym­bols of our na­tion­al iden­ti­ty.”

While Car­ni­val has tra­di­tion­al­ly been the main show­case for the steel­pan, Chaitram be­lieves Steel­pan Month of­fers some­thing equal­ly pow­er­ful: a ded­i­cat­ed time to re­flect on the in­stru­ment’s jour­ney, cul­tur­al sig­nif­i­cance, and its on­go­ing role in na­tion-build­ing.

“It’s a time to cel­e­brate the steel­pan not just as an in­stru­ment of mu­sic, but as an in­stru­ment of op­por­tu­ni­ty cre­at­ing em­ploy­ment, nur­tur­ing tal­ent, and build­ing com­mu­ni­ties.”

As a long-stand­ing spon­sor of Rene­gades Steel Or­ches­tra, bpTT’s in­volve­ment with pan is far from sym­bol­ic. This year, the com­pa­ny for­mal­ly ac­cept­ed the ti­tle of Steel­pan Am­bas­sador for 2025, mark­ing a deep­ened com­mit­ment to sup­port­ing the art form be­yond the Panora­ma stage and in­to mean­ing­ful, year-round ini­tia­tives like Steel­pan Month.

“We are proud to be more than just a spon­sor,” Chaitram says. “Be­ing a Steel­pan Am­bas­sador means be­ing part of a mis­sion and I en­cour­age oth­er cor­po­rate en­ti­ties to join us in that mis­sion.”

A sig­nif­i­cant part of bpTT’s steel­pan jour­ney has been its grow­ing part­ner­ship with Pan Trin­ba­go, led by its pres­i­dent, Bev­er­ley Ram­sey-Moore. Chaitram com­mends the or­ga­ni­za­tion’s lead­er­ship and vi­sion, not­ing that their work to­geth­er is dri­ven by shared val­ues and a com­mon goal.

“It goes be­yond fi­nan­cial sup­port. It’s about stew­ard­ship, en­sur­ing the steel­pan con­tin­ues to thrive, not on­ly in Trinidad and To­ba­go but across the globe.”

Through this part­ner­ship, Chaitram says, the pow­er of mu­sic as a tool for trans­for­ma­tion be­comes clear. Steel­pan fos­ters dis­ci­pline, en­cour­ages team­work, and in­spires ex­cel­lence—qual­i­ties that ben­e­fit young peo­ple and so­ci­ety as a whole.

“It’s not just about mu­sic,” he ex­plains. “It’s about em­pow­er­ment and com­mu­ni­ty. Through our team, we want to cre­ate path­ways for young peo­ple to ex­press them­selves, ex­plore their tal­ents, and con­tribute mean­ing­ful­ly.”

Look­ing ahead, Chaitram is en­thu­si­as­tic about the month’s cal­en­dar of events, which in­cludes per­for­mances, com­mu­ni­ty jams, his­tor­i­cal ex­hi­bi­tions, and youth show­cas­es.

“This month tru­ly cap­tures the spir­it of the steel­pan. It re­minds us of its im­por­tance not on­ly as a mu­si­cal in­stru­ment, but as a piece of our his­to­ry and a force shap­ing our fu­ture.”

He prais­es Pan Trin­ba­go’s con­tin­ued lead­er­ship in up­lift­ing the na­tion­al in­stru­ment and ex­press­es grat­i­tude for their call to pause, re­flect, and cel­e­brate what the steel­pan rep­re­sents.

Chaitram af­firms that bpTT is proud to an­swer that cal and proud to stand as a Steel­pan Am­bas­sador.

As Steel­pan Month con­tin­ues, he re­news his in­vi­ta­tion for oth­er com­pa­nies to fol­low suit: “I sin­cere­ly hope that by next year, we will see new am­bas­sadors step­ping for­ward to sup­port this in­cred­i­ble mis­sion — a mis­sion to ho­n­our the lega­cy of the steel­pan and in­vest in its fu­ture.”