RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

The Na­tion­al Sec­ondary Schools Ju­nior Panora­ma start­ed on a sweet note in San Fer­nan­do yes­ter­day with hun­dreds of stu­dents par­tic­i­pat­ing.

Among the bands com­pet­ing in the South Zone was the ex­pe­ri­enced Na­pari­ma Com­bined Steel Or­ches­tra. They re­ceived thun­der­ous ap­plause for their ren­di­tion of Bun­ji Gar­lin’s Big Bad So­ca at Cof­fee Street, San Fer­nan­do.

At NL­CB Fon­claire’s pa­n­yard on Dot­tin Street, stu­dents of Pleas­antville Sec­ondary School played Blaxx’s hit, Same Way. Many of these stu­dents, who had prac­tised for just over a month, had on­ly learnt to play the steel­pan in the last two months.

Mu­sic teacher and arranger Cur­tis Mar­celle said the stu­dents came to him in late Oc­to­ber ex­press­ing the de­sire to en­ter the Panora­ma com­pe­ti­tion.

“Some of them had nev­er played the pan be­fore,” Mar­celle said.

Among them was 12-year-old Naresh Ram­per­sad who im­pressed Mar­celle be­cause “he worked hard and so did the oth­er stu­dents.”

The stu­dents prac­tised for three hours dai­ly right through the Christ­mas hol­i­days.

Pres­i­dent of Fon­claire Dar­ren Shep­pard praised the young pan­nists. He said Pleas­antville Se­nior Com­pre­hen­sive was once a leader in Panora­ma Sec­ondary Schools com­pe­ti­tions and is on the road to great­ness once again.

San Fer­nan­do May­or Ju­nia Re­grel­lo con­grat­u­lat­ed the Na­pari­ma Com­bined Or­ches­tra say­ing he was proud to have them in the Skif­fle Bunch Pan The­atre.

Act­ing prin­ci­pal Karen Bal­ly said the band start­ed four years ago and had com­pet­ed in Ju­nior Panora­ma three times in the past.

“We have done ex­treme­ly well over the years. It has taught the stu­dents dis­ci­pline and has been a won­der­ful and en­rich­ing ex­pe­ri­ence for all of us,” she said.

Band cap­tain Ed­di­son Dean ex­pressed grat­i­tude to their spon­sors, in­clud­ing Unipet and RBC Roy­al Bank. He said arranger Shaquille Vin­cent worked hard with the band which com­pris­es stu­dents of Na­pari­ma Girls High School and Na­pari­ma Col­lege.

Pan Trin­ba­go PRO Whit­field Weekes said he was not sur­prised that some of the young pan­nists had start­ed play­ing less than two months be­fore the com­pe­ti­tion.

“This is the pow­er of the pan and we as Trinida­di­ans fit in­to the pan so eas­i­ly that the rest of the world is amazed that we can play clas­si­cal mu­sic with­out a sheet,” he said.

Cur­ricu­lum co­or­di­na­tor at the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion Marce­line Pe­ters said she was not sur­prised at the progress of the stu­dents since the steel­pan is a ver­sa­tile in­stru­ment.

She said each band will be judged on their in­tro­duc­tion, how well they ar­tic­u­late, the cho­rus, how they in­ter­pret the song and har­mon­i­sa­tion.

Miguel Camps, arranger for Mara­bel­la South Sec­ondary, said prepa­ra­tions start­ed last Au­gust when they did a song for the school’s an­niver­sary, Tri­ni to D Bone.

“Be­cause time didn’t per­mit we took this song and we de­cid­ed to en­ter the Panora­ma. The song is three and a half min­utes long so if we do get in­to the semi­fi­nals, there is still some work to be done. The song wasn’t struc­tured for Panora­ma but this was what we had to work with,” he said.

There were four en­trants this year, Mara­bel­la South Sec­ondary, Na­pari­ma Col­lege and Na­pari­ma Girls High School. Wa­ter­loo Gov­ern­ment School dropped out at the last minute.

Pe­ters said judg­ing of East Zone and Port-of-Spain schools will take place to­day and to­mor­row.