Matthew Chin

Re­porter

matthew.chin@guardian.co.tt

Ju­nior par­ran­deros and pan play­ers show­cased their tal­ents at Queen’s Hall, St Ann’s, yes­ter­day dur­ing the 35th Bi­en­ni­al Mu­sic Fes­ti­val.

Dur­ing the fi­nals of the Ju­nior Steel­pan En­sem­ble cat­e­go­ry (19 Years and Un­der), eight com­peti­tors vied on stage with on­ly three al­lowed to ad­vance to the cham­pi­onships: the bp Rene­gades Youth Steel Or­ches­tra (first place), En­ter­tain­er’s Mu­sic School (EMS) en­sem­ble (sec­ond place), and St Mary’s Col­lege Pan En­sem­ble (third place).

The ad­ju­di­ca­tor for the day’s pro­ceed­ings, Nu­bia Williams praised the bp Rene­gades team for their in­ter­pre­ta­tion of An­to­nio Vi­val­di’s epic, The Four Sea­sons-Sum­mer, which was met with loud ap­plause from the au­di­ence. The group scored 90 points.

“The bp Rene­gades Youth Steel Or­ches­tra ... the start of your per­for­mance was very mea­sured. Demon­stra­tion of an un­der­stand­ing was ev­i­dent in the in­ter­pre­ta­tion of the piece. Over­all, there was a good blend and con­trol of sound,” Williams said.

The EMS en­sem­ble and bp Rene­gades Youth Steel Or­ches­tra ad­vanced to the cham­pi­onship round.

Amid con­grat­u­la­tion and praise, how­ev­er, a re­cur­ring prob­lem no­ticed by Williams dur­ing some of the per­for­mances was the clash­ing of pan sticks on the rim of the steel­pans. St James Sec­ondary School and the PGCS Steel En­sem­ble were barred from go­ing for­ward due to this blun­der. But de­spite the loss, the for­mer was com­mend­ed by the ad­ju­di­ca­tor for their tran­si­tions be­tween notes and the lat­ter for their arrange­ment.

Fol­low­ing the im­pres­sive steel­pan per­for­mances, four parang groups com­pet­ed in the fi­nals of the Ju­nior Parang En­sem­ble cat­e­go­ry (19 Years and Un­der).

Mem­bers of the au­di­ence were im­me­di­ate­ly drawn to the stage by the red and yel­low dress­es worn by the St  Joseph’s Con­vent Choir who sang An­damos Bus­can­do.

Williams praised the blend and bal­ance of their voic­es and co­or­di­nat­ing move­ment on stage. The group scored 82 points, com­ing in sec­ond and se­cur­ing a spot at the cham­pi­onships.  

Lead vo­cal­ist of the group and Form Four stu­dent of St Joseph’s Con­vent Christi­na Good­ing said she was hap­py de­spite not com­ing first.

“It was great. I am hap­py with the sec­ond-place win. All in all, it was fun,” Good­ing said.

Ar­mo­nius Div­ina came first place with 90 points, swoon­ing the au­di­ence with their ren­di­tion of El Sal­vador and their flow­ery blue and white gar­ments.

Williams con­sid­ered the group’s per­for­mance con­vinc­ing de­spite the lead vo­cal­ist’s ten­den­cy to drop in vol­ume at the end of some lines.

“What an in­ter­est­ing en­trance with some per­form­ers back­ing back­wards and oth­ers for­ward. There were nice move­ments, a warm sound, and a great har­mo­ny with dy­nam­ics in­clud­ed for con­trast in mood and tex­ture,” Williams said.

The af­ter­noon ses­sion in­clud­ed per­for­mances by soloists and choirs un­der the age of 19 and 13 com­pet­ing with­in the ca­lyp­so and folk song cat­e­gories. Thurs­day is the last day of the 35th Bi­en­ni­al Mu­sic Fes­ti­val Pre­lim­i­nar­ies.