On Sun­day at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah, Port-of-Spain, there was a glimpse in­to the fu­ture of the steel­band move­ment and it looked very bright.

The en­thu­si­asm and com­mit­ment dis­played by the young pan play­ers and their sup­port­ers, who con­verged on that venue for the Na­tion­al Ju­nior Panora­ma fi­nals, pro­vid­ed a rare mo­ment of joy and light for the na­tion. It was an op­por­tu­ni­ty to look away from the ever present blood­shed and vi­o­lence and rev­el in the en­er­gy of a mo­ment that doesn’t hap­pen of­ten enough.

This year, the biggest ac­co­lades go to pri­ma­ry school cham­pi­ons St Mar­garet’s Boys’ An­gli­can, Holy Faith Con­vent, Pe­nal, in the sec­ondary schools cat­e­go­ry, and Bp Rene­gades Youth Steel Or­ches­tra, the 21 and un­der win­ners.

Every sin­gle mem­ber of these win­ning bands played a part in bring­ing Panora­ma glo­ry to their re­spec­tive schools and com­mu­ni­ties.

With their vic­to­ries, they al­so in­spired fu­ture gen­er­a­tions of pan play­ers to em­brace the na­tion­al in­stru­ment and ex­plore their mu­si­cal and cre­ative po­ten­tial in healthy and pro­duc­tive ways.

St Mar­garet’s Boys’ An­gli­can is back at the top, adding to a string of suc­cess­es in the com­pe­ti­tion dat­ing back to 2004, the first year they copped the ti­tle.

The Bel­mont band achieved suc­ces­sive wins from 2006 to 2013, then scored the dou­ble in 2017 and 2018, be­fore re­turn­ing to the top this year, beat­ing back some for­mi­da­ble com­pe­ti­tion from last year’s win­ners Guaico Pres­by­ter­ian, who came in sec­ond.

The com­pe­ti­tion was equal­ly in­tense among the sec­ondary school steel­bands but the spoils went to Holy Faith Con­vent, Pe­nal, who broke in­to the win­ner’s cir­cle, de­thron­ing past cham­pi­ons to lift the tro­phy.

There were al­so dom­i­nat­ing per­for­mances in the 21 and un­der cat­e­go­ry, where sea­soned com­peti­tors Bp Rene­gades Youth Steel Or­ches­tra came out ahead of T&TEC Trop­i­cal An­gel Harps Youth Steel Or­ches­tra and Des­per­a­does Youth Steel Or­ches­tra, who tied in sec­ond place.

All these bands have earned their stand­ing ova­tions for ful­ly em­brac­ing this dis­tinc­tive el­e­ment of T&T’s mu­si­cal cul­ture and achiev­ing ex­cel­lence with their per­for­mances on one of this coun­try’s biggest and most chal­leng­ing stages, the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah.

Heart­felt com­men­da­tions must al­so be ex­tend­ed to all of this year’s fi­nal­ists, as well as all the oth­er ju­nior steel­bands who par­tic­i­pat­ed at every lev­el in this year’s com­pe­ti­tion.

Of­ten for­got­ten in the glo­ry of the win­ning mo­ments are the count­less back sto­ries of grit and de­ter­mi­na­tion demon­strat­ed by these young mu­si­cians as they pre­pare for the com­pe­ti­tion, learn­ing their notes by rote dur­ing long hours of painstak­ing re­hearsals and seem­ing­ly end­less drills to get their Panora­ma arrange­ments just right.

The re­mark­able de­vel­op­ment of Ju­nior Panora­ma, which start­ed 48 years ago with just two bands com­pet­ing and has evolved in­to a plat­form for the mu­si­cal and artis­tic tal­ents of T&T youths on the na­tion­al in­stru­ment, should be a source of na­tion­al pride.

The qual­i­ty of mu­si­cian­ship among the play­ers on Sun­day, as they proved their worth as T&T’s newest gen­er­a­tion of pan play­ers, is in it­self cause for cel­e­bra­tion.

And in giv­ing cred­it where it is due, ku­dos to Pan Trin­ba­go, the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion and the many teach­ers, arrangers and drill cap­tains who in­vest their time and tal­ent in the pos­i­tive de­vel­op­ment of the young play­ers.

The fu­ture of the steel­pan is not on­ly se­cure, it is very bright.