SAN­DRA L BLOOD

The Na­tion­al Panora­ma Sin­gle Pan pre­lim­i­nary com­pe­ti­tion ran from No­vem­ber 12 to 20, fea­tur­ing 48 bands, in­clud­ing three mil­i­tary en­sem­bles — Fire, Reg­i­ment and Po­lice. Al­so cap­tur­ing wide­spread at­ten­tion was the youngest com­peti­tor in Panora­ma his­to­ry: a five-year-old per­form­ing on the small­est pan ever played at the event. Pan Trin­ba­go has apt­ly dubbed him “The Lit­tle Mozart of Pan.”

Chord Mas­ters topped the pre­lim­i­nar­ies with 276 points, per­form­ing Show­down: Band Meets Band, arranged by An­dre White and con­duct­ed by Akua Lei­th.

Man­aged by Richard “Pow­ers” de Coteau, the band is aim­ing for a third fi­nal-night cham­pi­onship ti­tle, hav­ing se­cured back-to-back wins in 2023 and 2024 un­der White and Lei­th.

In the 2025 fi­nals, how­ev­er, they placed sec­ond, de­throned by eight-time cham­pi­ons San Juan East Side Sym­pho­ny, led by the world’s most suc­cess­ful Panora­ma arranger, Du­vone Stew­art. In the Sin­gle Pan pre­lim­i­nar­ies, San Juan East Side Sym­pho­ny placed sixth with 270 points for Stew­art’s arrange­ment of Jumbie.

Pub­lic con­sen­sus is that the bands ho­n­oured the pre­lim­i­nar­ies this year, re­flect­ed in the strong stan­dard of per­for­mances. Stakes are said to be es­pe­cial­ly high for Chord Mas­ters and San Juan East Side Sym­pho­ny head­ing in­to the fi­nals. They will ap­pear in po­si­tions 12 and 21 re­spec­tive­ly. With the cur­rent na­tion­al cli­mate, many pa­trons are al­so ex­press­ing strong sup­port for the mil­i­tary bands, which will per­form in po­si­tions 2, 4, and 25.

Twen­ty-five fi­nal­ists will com­pete at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah (QPS) on Sat­ur­day at 6 pm.

On the Panora­ma cal­en­dar, the pre­lim­i­nar­ies for the Small Con­ven­tion­al Band cat­e­go­ry will take place from De­cem­ber 5–14.

Pan Trin­ba­go is­sued the fol­low­ing state­ment:

“Pan Trin­ba­go thanks every Sin­gle Pan band for their artistry and com­mit­ment. As we cel­e­brate Panora­ma 2026: Lega­cy — Ours to Love. Ours to Cher­ish, the steel­pan lega­cy shines brighter with each per­for­mance. Steel­pan is the heart­beat of our na­tion — the sound of our soul. The move­ment lives in our spir­it year-round, fu­eled by pas­sion, in­no­va­tion, and the un­stop­pable heart­beat of our peo­ple. To­geth­er, we pre­serve the cul­ture that unites gen­er­a­tions.”

Ad­mis­sion:$150 at Pan Trin­ba­go Head Of­fice (55 Dun­don­ald Street, Port of Spain); on­line at pantrin­ba­go.co.tt or is­landet­ick­et.com. Pay-Per-View: US$25. For fur­ther de­tails, call (868) 235-5493.

Or­der of Ap­pear­ance for Sin­gle Pan Fi­nals

Pan Jam­mers

T&T Fire Ser­vice

La Ro­maine Su­per Vibes

T&T Prison Ser­vice

Hope Pan Groovers

Ari­ma All Stars

LA 47 Steel Or­ches­tra

New Age Trend­set­ters

San Juan All Stars

Scrun­ters Pan Groove

Epic Koskeros

Chord Mas­ters

D’Orig­i­nal Wood­brook Mod­er­naires

East Phon­ics

Naya Hill S.O.M.

La Famille Unit­ed

Nu Pi­o­neers Pan Groove

Metro Stars

Harlem Syn­co­pa­tors

La Cre­ole Pan Groove

San Juan East Side Sym­pho­ny

Uni Stars

Pan Stere­onettes

Trinidad East Side Sym­pho­ny

T&T Po­lice Ser­vice