Junior pannists in tune this Sunday

This Sunday, junior pan players in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) will take to the stage at Carnival City, Victoria Park in the 2024 Junior Panorama competition.

The showcase is being put on by the YouLou Pan Movement (YPM), and is endorsed by the Carnival Development Corporation (CDC) and sponsored by the St. Vincent Electricity Services (VINLEC).

This year, Junior Panorama is expected to showcase the talents of some 575 junior pannists from seven school bands, and four community bands.

The school bands are from the Campen Park Secondary School (Bethel High); the Sandy Bay Secondary School; the South Rivers Methodist School; the CW Prescott Primary School; the New Grounds Primary School; the Central Leeward Secondary School,;and the Bishop’s College.

The community groups are Symphonix Steel Orchestra; Hennessy Starlift Steel Orchestra, who are defending champions; Elite Steel Orchestra; the and Sion Hill Euphonium Steel Orchestra.

Last year, there were insufficient bands to have two separate competitions like in previous years so all the involved bands- school and community- took part in one competition. However, this year it is back to two separate competitions- school bands, and community bands.

Hennessy Starlift Steel Orchestra won the competition in 2023 from a field of six bands, down from the 14 that competed in 2022. Starlift performed ‘All I Need’ by Hance John, amassing 245 points.

Mitchell Duarte, the youngest arranger in the competition, was head of Hennesy Starlift, and his work helped push Sion Hill Euphonium Steel Orchestra into second place with their 236 points doing a rendition of ‘Cocaine Jumbie’ by Field Marshall. Third place went to Symphonix Steel Orchestra performing ‘Hands in the Air’ by Winston Soso which the judges awarded 232 points.

Bishop’s College Kingstown, landed 223 points with ‘Afro Caribbean’ by Blacksand; Leaf Elite Steel Orchestra’s ‘Kentucky’ by Becket took fifth place having amassed 174 points; and the Sandy Bay Secondary School performing an original arrangement ‘To the Sky’ was awarded 116 points and placed in position number six.