SAN­DRA L BLOOD

I It start­ed with a re­quest from France in 1999 for a Rene­gades ju­nior band to take part in a Eu­ro­pean tour. A group of pan­nists 21 years and younger was se­lect­ed for that event.

The fol­low­ing May, the Rene­gades Youth Steel Or­ches­tra (RYSO) was launched through the ef­forts of Ed­mund Willis, Can­dice An­drews-Bru­mant and Richard Mc­David, who were board mem­bers of the par­ent band, Rene­gades Steel Or­ches­tra (RSO), at the time.

Willis served as the youth band’s man­ag­er for 20 years, then was suc­ceed­ed by An­drews-Bru­mant, who held the po­si­tion for three years be­fore be­com­ing RSO’s first fe­male cap­tain.

On May 10, RYSO reached a sig­nif­i­cant mile­stone, its sil­ver an­niver­sary.

Among those cel­e­brat­ing this achieve­ment is hu­man re­source man­age­ment ex­pert Hol­lick Ra­jku­mar, a long-time sup­port­er who was in­volved in talks among heads of RSO to start a ju­nior band some 40 years ago.

Like RSO, RYSO is spon­sored by bpTT, whose chair­man at the time of the band’s for­ma­tion was Robert Ri­ley, a not­ed lover of cul­ture.

The com­pa­ny’s li­ai­son of­fi­cer with the band was Ger­ard Jack­son, who re­tired in 2021. His suc­ces­sor, Ryan Chaitram, is a for­mer youth pan­nist.

Jack­son said de­spite many chal­leng­ing times, youth sta­bil­i­ty, de­vel­op­ment and ex­cel­lence were para­mount, so every chair­man of bpTT has sup­port­ed the com­pa­ny’s in­volve­ment with the band.

“The aim has nev­er been to sim­ply ex­tend mon­ey and leave the body strand­ed, but to ad­e­quate­ly sup­port it, cre­ate a tight-knit unit, en­cour­age hu­man de­vel­op­ment, and progress,” Jack­son said.

Oth­er ar­dent sup­port­ers of RYSO’s de­vel­op­ment are Kath­leen Cal­len­der, Ber­nice Obasi-Cal­len­der, Rhona Bark­er and Nicholan Joseph.

RYSO’s 25-year track record is yet to be matched by any oth­er steel­band.

At their first Panora­ma com­pe­ti­tion in 2002, they set a prece­dent as the first non-school band, which gave rise to the 21 and Un­der cat­e­go­ry from 2009.

In all their 22 Panora­ma ap­pear­ances, they were fi­nal­ists and scored five con­sec­u­tive wins, two beaver tricks and sev­er­al hat tricks, a feat that has earned the band’s arranger, An­drew Charles, a rep­u­ta­tion as a Panora­ma his­to­ry-mak­er.

For many years, RYSO’s drill mas­ter was mas­ter dis­ci­pli­nar­i­an Ever­ard “Red­man” Wat­son and their first arranger was the leg­endary Jit Sama­roo.

Their hat trick jour­ney start­ed with Jit’s son Am­rit (2002-2004); con­tin­ued with Shel­ton Besson (2008-2010), then with­in Charles’ (2014-2018) stint.

Out­side of the Panora­ma com­pe­ti­tion, the band took part in a Eu­ro­pean tour in 2002, Chil­dren of To­day Mu­si­cians of To­mor­row in France, Ger­many, Nor­way and Italy.

The next year, they mes­merised at Queen Eliz­a­beth’s 75th birth­day cel­e­bra­tions and Car­ifes­ta in Suri­name.

Over the years, Ke­ol New­ton, Aronne DeS­ouza, ShellyAnn Charles, Michel­lene Grif­fith, La­toya Du­font, Che Ce­de­no, Am­i­na Cur­van, Ani­la Mulzac and Em­manuel Joseph have served as RYSO cap­tains. Cur­rent­ly, the po­si­tion is held by To­cara John­son.

RSO pres­i­dent Col­in Greaves said he and his team are proud of what RYSO has achieved.

Best wish­es on the band’s an­niver­sary were al­so ex­tend­ed by Willis, An­drews-Bru­mant, Chaitram, Jack­son, Ra­jku­mar, Clint Bap­tiste, the Lopez fam­i­ly, and Lin­da Irvine of Friends of Pan Trin­ba­go.

Pan Trin­ba­go north­ern re­gion’s chair­man De­siree Mey­ers said: “RYSO’s com­mit­ment and ded­i­ca­tion have con­tributed to­wards the mu­si­cal lega­cy of a great in­sti­tu­tion as bp Rene­gades, and it’s a cel­e­bra­tion of suc­cess, growth and trans­for­ma­tion.”

Charles thanked band mem­bers for their co­op­er­a­tion and be­ing a bea­con for young peo­ple, the art form and its com­mu­ni­ty.

“I feel ex­treme­ly proud to be a part of an or­gan­i­sa­tion that has such a rich and suc­cess­ful his­to­ry.

“I feel loved and ap­pre­ci­at­ed and lucky to be aligned with Rene­gades be­cause they have giv­en me the guid­ance and op­por­tu­ni­ties for achiev­ing an en­joy­able and suc­cess­ful ca­reer. I’m most grate­ful,” he said.