PanoGrama 2021 Gets Underway

Global - The 2021 edition of the PanoGrama competition kicked off on the evening of May 7. And yes, the producers of this virtual show have upped their game considerably. The event′s organizers provided a live stream production that was simultaneously broadcast on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. WST (When Steel Talks) monitored the show on both Facebook and YouTube. Facebook provided a max stream quality of 720p while YouTube facilitated one of 1080p. While both streams worked fine without any hiccups or buffering - for the serious pan music connoisseurs with discerning ears and professional visual taste, the YouTube platform is the only real choice.

PanoGrama 2021 Preliminaries - Night 1 - Host Nevin Roach with co-host Aundrea Wharton

The tightly woven program began exactly as advertised at 8:00 p.m. EST (Eastern Standard Time). The show′s host Nevin Roach and co-host Aundrea Wharton provided guidance, judging criteria, rules explanations, prize info, and welcome introductory data on the show′s competitors. Plain and simple - Roach and Wharton enhanced the show. At no time was there a need or desire to hit the ʽmute′ button on their vocal presentation. They kept it short, tight, supportive, entertaining and moving along. They understood the ʽtalent′ was what was on display. Quite frankly, on most of these virtual pan shows hosts don′t seem to know when to give it a break, and should NOT be on a mic or in front of a camera.

Ten of the thirty competitors performed on Night #1 with the remaining twenty to have their performances broadcast over the two following evenings. All of the contestants gave a very good accounting of themselves. Their musicianship, dexterity, control and ability to have competent and thought-provoking musical conversations were on full display.

Maurisha Potter - PanoGrama 2021 Preliminaries - Night 1
Antigua & Barbuda

Mikiel Smith - PanoGrama 2021 Preliminaries - Night 1
Grenada

Gabbriel Chartrand - PanoGrama 2021 Preliminaries - Night 1
Canada

PanoGrama′s global online audience enjoyed vastly improved audio and video over last year′s presentations. The audience got to hear clean, direct feeds of stereo background tracks with the steelpan instruments mixed in at appropriate levels. While the contestants are not being judged on their audio engineering abilities, it was a welcome requirement to have some good audio that could somewhat complement the level of the excellence of the performances, and not potentially detract and distract from the perception and appreciation of the delivery.

This show was not distortion (audio) city. Visuals and props were quite good - some much better than others.

Behind the scenes Mr. Roach and crew have been very professional. Pertinent info, press releases, pictures and more have been provided on time and readily available.

The tone and sound of these instruments play a critical role in all aspects of the competition. So it would have been good to have had access to names of the tuners and perhaps manufacturers of the respective steelpans, where available. Maybe that could be supplied going forward.

Shovon Brown - PanoGrama 2021 Preliminaries - Night 1
Trinidad & Tobago

Matthew Kiser - PanoGrama 2021 Preliminaries - Night 1
USA

This is the music entertainment business. Everything matters and moreover, the standards for greatness have been set a long time ago.

Looking forward to night two of PanoGrama 2021 prelims.