DAVID CUFFY

Suc­cess Stars Pan Sounds Steel Or­ches­tra re­cent­ly re­leased its new fund-rais­ing CD ti­tled Lega­cy of Ex­cel­lence.

The 11-track al­bum, a Pan In Ed­u­ca­tion fund-rais­ing ini­tia­tive, con­tains com­po­si­tions from the pens of the late An­dre Tanker, Mae­stro (Ce­cil Hume) and Kitch­en­er (Ald­wyn Roberts), in ad­di­tion to se­lec­tions by Su­perBlue (Austin Lyons), and oth­ers. They in­clude Lament Of A Flower, Some­thing To Cel­e­brate, Pay­phone, Grenade, Pan In A Mi­nor, Bo­hemi­an Rhap­sody, Fan­tas­tic Fri­day/Ethel, Sav­age/Lit­tle Wine, Re­bec­ca, Ben Li­on, and Pan Night and Day. The arrangers are Sean Lewis, L Sal­vary, C Co­dring­ton and Mick­iel Gabriel.

The or­ches­tra, which has won many tro­phies over the years, was spawned at the Suc­cess Laven­tille Sec­ondary School (SLSS), which re­sides in the bel­ly of the steel­pan world, home of many renowned in­no­va­tors and pan tuners, and whose mu­si­cal pro­grammes, from in­cep­tion, re­flect its love and re­spect for the her­itage and lega­cy of the found­ing fa­thers of the steel­band move­ment.

In 1985 and 1986 the steel or­ches­tra, fond­ly ab­bre­vi­at­ed to Suc­cess Stars, par­tic­i­pat­ed in two pres­ti­gious mu­sic com­pe­ti­tions for the first time–the Steel­band Mu­sic Fes­ti­val and Ju­nior Panora­ma. In 1987, un­der the mu­si­cal tute­lage and di­rec­tor­ship of teacher Sean Lewis, the band claimed its first vic­to­ry in the Steel­band Mu­sic Fes­ti­val. This was fol­lowed by win­ning the Ju­nior Panora­ma ti­tle in 1988. The band went on to se­cure vic­to­ries in the Steel­band Mu­sic Fes­ti­val in 1991, 1995, 1999 and 2003 un­der the ba­ton of Ben Jack­son.

With past stu­dents show­ing al­le­giance to their school and steel or­ches­tra, Suc­cess Stars Pan Sounds now com­pris­es alum­ni and present stu­dents team­ing up to en­ter com­pe­ti­tions. Man­ag­er Kay Fe­lix, arranger Mick­iel Gabriel and ded­i­cat­ed par­ents su­per­vise re­hearsals on the com­pound af­ter school hours to al­low the young peo­ple to do what they love do­ing –play­ing the pan.

Suc­cess Stars has per­formed in Cana­da, Scot­land and USA. In March 2014, the band was se­lect­ed by the Min­istry of the Arts and Mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism to rep­re­sent T&T at the IX In­ter­na­tion­al Fes­ti­val Ce­dros in Mex­i­co.

SLSS wish­es to recog­nise British Gas T&T which has fi­nanced the three-year pi­lot pro­gramme Pan in Ed­u­ca­tion, an ini­tia­tive of Sanch Elec­tron­ix, aimed at cre­at­ing mu­sic in­dus­try pro­fes­sion­als.

Copies of the CD, pro­duced by Sanch Elec­tron­ix, can be pur­chased on­ly at the school on the East­ern Main Road, Laven­tille, and Sanch at 23 King Street,St Joseph. It is not avail­able at record shops.