SAN­DRA L BLOOD

blood­san­dral@ya­hoo.com

The semi­fi­nal round of the three-year and im­mense­ly-grow­ing on­line steel­pan com­pe­ti­tion, PanoGra­ma, was held on May 29, from 8 to 10 pm, where 20 pan­nists rep­re­sent­ing eight coun­tries par­tic­i­pat­ed. Ten ad­vanced to the fi­nals. To set the tone as an open­ing act, was Cana­da’s Gabriel Char­trand.

Win­ner of the pre­lim­i­nary round, USA’s David Yun­di and fourth semi­fi­nal act was plum­met­ed to 3rd place with 87.7 points (p) with his ren­di­tion of DJ Pri­vate Ryan x Free­town Col­lec­tive’s reg­gae hit, Feel the Love. Be­hind France’s Math­ieu Borne, 2nd with 93.7 points with a Lord Kitch­en­er’s, Sour Ap­ple, a cool ca­lyp­so genre.

Borne caused the pre­sen­ters and on­line au­di­ence to re­mark, while the ap­ple may have been sour, the ren­di­tion was sweet.

Emerg­ing win­ner with his in­ter­pre­ta­tion of a Chick Corea jazz-fu­sion, Spain was T&T’s Shaquille “Fl­o­go” Forbes with 94 points, who didn’t on­ly wear Corea on his T-shirt, but used him as a still prop.

Com­plet­ing the top five were T&T’s Aquila Pereira in full Hawai­ian at­tire, com­ple­ment­ing set, dance moves and sun-burst­ing smiles—4th with 86.7 points, with the sal­sa song, Vivir Mi Vi­da. Hanif Goodridge, 5th with 84.3 points for his in­ter­pre­ta­tion of the smooth jazz hit, The Mas­quer­ade, by George Ben­son. Goodridge pre­sent­ed the mas­quer­ade in its en­tire­ty from at­tire in­clud­ing red rose on tux lapel to gold full-face mas­quer­ade mask to the set.

First-time par­tic­i­pant who sound­ed an ear­ly warn­ing from pre­lims, that “Be­lize is here,” Alexan­der Evans, made it to the fi­nals.

T&T’s Aquila Pereira placed fourth in the semifinal round of PanoGrama 2022 with Vivir Mi Vida.

Al­so, mak­ing it to the fi­nals are T&T’s Tevin Shock­ness—6th with 84 points, Jaron Wood­ley, 7th with 83 points and Em­manuel Joseph, 8th with 82.3 points. Be­lize’s Alexan­der Evans placed 9th with 81.3 points and Grena­da’s Michel Smith, 10th with 81 points.

Pre­sen­ters: founder and CEO of PanoGra­ma En­ter­tain­ment, Nevin Roach, and Aun­drea Roach, opened the cur­tain with the PanoGra­ma an­them, fol­lowed by open­ing re­marks by the Sec­re­tary of The Di­vi­sion of Tourism, Cul­ture, An­tiq­ui­ties and Trans­porta­tion, To­ba­go, Coun­cil­lor Tashia Bur­ris.

Apart from im­pres­sive sen­ti­ments on the event, Bur­ris ex­tend­ed an in­vi­ta­tion to Roach to bring PanoGra­ma to To­ba­go next year, 2023.

Roach ex­plained that PanoGra­ma goes very deep. “The idea is not that the pan­nists sim­ply par­tic­i­pate in PanoGra­ma, but to grow through PanoGra­ma. It’s an all-in­clu­sive ex­pe­ri­ence. We are not just about en­ter­tain­ment.”

Coun­tries rep­re­sent­ed for semis were An­tigua and Bar­bu­da, Be­lize, Cana­da, France, Grena­da, St Vin­cent, Trinidad and To­ba­go, and USA, and coun­tries ad­vanc­ing to fi­nals are France, USA, Be­lize, Grena­da and T&T.

Judges were Dr Mia Gor­mandy-Ben­jamin, Adj. Pro­fes­sor Vic­tor Provost, and Prof Liam Teague with sub­sti­tutes hav­ing been Andy Chich­ester and Ojay Richards.

The prizes for the over­all win­ner are an all-ex­pens­es-paid trip to the Ba­hamas, 1 brand-new Per­fect Steel tenor pan and case, US$1,000, and a pri­vate ses­sion with a world-renowned steel­pan­nist, while each 2022 par­tic­i­pant re­ceives a pair of ex­quis­ite­ly-made pan sticks (mal­lets).

There is al­so a Best Dressed and Peo­ple’s Choice cat­e­go­ry.

PanoGra­ma grand fi­nals—The World Cup of Pan—is card­ed for June 12, 2022 at 8 pm.

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