Tremaine So­ca Warn­er

Just last month, 11-year-old Ish­mael Williams of St Mar­garet's Boys' An­gli­can School emerged as the most out­stand­ing stu­dent in a pan con­struc­tion and tun­ing course of­fered by Pan De­vel­op­ment Un­lim­it­ed (PDU).

Williams was al­so one of the youngest par­tic­i­pants to take part in the course in its al­most 40-year his­to­ry.

But at St Mar­garet's Boys' on St Mar­garet's Lane in Bel­mont, pan vic­to­ry is noth­ing new. The school boasts nine Ju­nior Panora­ma cham­pi­on ti­tles in­clud­ing an eight-year win­ning streak be­tween 2006 and 2013. This year, the school's un­der-13 or­ches­tra beat 11 oth­er par­tic­i­pat­ing schools with its ren­di­tion of Vibes by De­stra Gar­cia and they per­formed at the Flori­da Memo­r­i­al Uni­ver­si­ty Youth Steel­band Fes­ti­val in Mi­a­mi for the fourth time.

The T&T Guardian sat down for an in­ter­view with Stan­dard Five teacher Rose­marie Abra­ham who has led the school's pan pro­gramme since its in­cep­tion in 2002.

The St Mar­garet's Boys' Steel Or­ches­tra be­gan in Sep­tem­ber 2002 through the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion's School Im­prove­ment Pro­gramme. By 2004, with the help of prize mon­ey and do­na­tions, the school was able to ex­pand the pro­gramme by pur­chas­ing more pans and con­vert­ing its as­sem­bly area in­to a mu­sic room. The af­ter-school pan pro­gramme now ac­com­mo­dates all stu­dents from the in­fants de­part­ment straight up to Stan­dard Five. Past stu­dents of the school have even formed a small con­ven­tion­al un­der-21 steel­band with some of the Stan­dard Four and Five stu­dents.

Over the years, arrangers for the school's or­ches­tra have in­clud­ed lead­ing arrangers like Desmond Wait­he, Yohan Pop­well, Clive Tele­maque, Robert To­bit, Shel­don Pe­ters, Keon Robin­son and Abra­ham's daugh­ter Shenelle Abra­ham. Lo­cal arranger and com­pos­er Ro­ry Ale­ong teach­es mu­sic the­o­ry at the school, which Abra­ham says com­ple­ments what stu­dents learn dur­ing the af­ter-school ses­sions.

Abra­ham at­trib­ut­es all the school's steel­pan suc­cess in pan to hard work.

"We have had a lot of wins so every­body wants to play and par­ents of new in­fants want their chil­dren to join the pan. But it doesn't come just so. It is a lot of hard work and not just at Car­ni­val time. These kids prac­tise all through­out the year. For Panora­ma we choose the best play­ers and start prac­tis­ing from De­cem­ber."

She said teach­ers try to use pan as a "mo­ti­va­tor" for stu­dents so that in cas­es of in­dis­ci­pline or fal­ter­ing grades, the boys are urged to do bet­ter if they want to re­main in the pan pro­gramme.

"In­ad­ver­tent­ly, it helps them in their con­cen­tra­tion," she said. "Boys can be very un­set­tled. With the pan there is a sense of com­mit­ment, re­spon­si­bil­i­ty, or­der and fo­cus in their lives be­cause they have to at­tend prac­tices reg­u­lar­ly and be punc­tu­al."

She said there is al­so a sense of broth­er­hood among the pan­nists with some of the past stu­dents in the un­der-21 or­ches­tra even of­fer­ing to help the younger boys with their stud­ies. Abra­ham said some of her proud­est mo­ments have been watch­ing the boys per­form at con­certs where the nervi­ous ten­sion of com­pe­ti­tion is ab­sent.

"I love to see them per­form at con­certs and events when you can sit back and watch their lit­tle faces light up as they play the mu­sic. They re­al­ly are ex­cit­ed about pan and they have a love for it. These boys are com­mit­ted and they en­joy what they do."

Asked about her hopes for the pan pro­gramme, she said the school wants to get new pans for the or­ches­tra that are sep­a­rate from those used by the rest of the school's stu­dents.

St Mar­garet's Boys' Steel Or­ches­tra al­so hopes to find "a per­ma­nent home" for prac­tice ses­sions and for hous­ing their in­stru­ments. At present, the pans and pan racks are kept in the school's as­sem­bly area and park­ing lot.

In Ju­ly of this year, the school will host its sev­enth an­nu­al In­ter­na­tion­al Youth Pan Ex­tra­vangaza which will fea­ture St Fran­cois Girls' Steel Or­ches­tra, Suc­cess Stars Pan Sounds and the Sonata Steel Or­ches­tra from New York.