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 Trinidad
- Unlike the old days when panorama competitions ran
much later into the wee hours of the morning, results
for the finals of the
medium and
small steel orchestra
categories were signed off on and delivered by 1:00 AM.
Yohan Popwell, arranging Bandoleros for Sforzata Steel Orchestra
in the medium category,
renewed his winning ways with the band, leading them in
2009 to their third championship title in
five years with 473 points. Popwell (pictured) first took up
the arranging reigns back in 2005; and in the two years
they did not triumph - 2006 and 2007 - that
collaboration still bore fruit with the orchestra coming
in at a strong third position overall.
Two points down and in second position was Buccooneers
Steel Orchestra from the sister isle
of Tobago. Their arranger was Seion Gomez, who
moved from arranging in the small band category, up to both
the medium and large arenas. Buccooneer’s
scintillating delivery of Dangerous edged out last
year’s champions, Sound Specialists of Laventille who held
on to the third spot with a score of 468.
 Not to be
outdone in skill, passion or exuberance, the small steel
orchestras also shone for the evening, with arranger
Terrance “BJ” Marcelle (pictured) ably steering Arima Golden Symphony
to 439 points and the winning spot, with his arrangement and
the orchestra’s execution of A Blue Crescendo - a
decision that was well-received by the crowd. That
song, A Blue Crescendo - an ode and tribute to Superblue - one of
Trinidad and Tobago's top soca bards - worked well for the four top-scoring bands in the small
steel orchestra category, who each performed their most
credible arrangements of the selection, composed and sung
by De Original d'Fosto (Winston Scarborough). In
the wake of champions Arima Golden Symphony and racking up 434, 432 and 431.5 points respectively,
were San City
Steel Symphony, Tornadoes Steel Orchestra and Panasonic
Connection.
Laventille Serenaders who were third coming into the
finals but ran seventh in the final tally, took the stage
first, just after the official 7:15 p.m. opening of the
evening with a noteworthy rendering by one of their members
of the National Anthem.
Katzenjammers, from Trinidad's sister island, Tobago -
and the third of the island’s three orchestras to make it to the
finals of the national panorama competition in the
medium category - struck the last note in the
competition at 12:35 a.m. early Wednesday February 19. They capped a performance-filled evening that featured
eight bands each in both competition categories in the showcase of the country's 2009 National
Panorama conventional steel orchestras. As is always the
case for the finals, the orchestras pulled out all the
stops in their efforts to be captivating not only in
performance, but also in visual presentation.
It was
back in 2004 when Pan Trinbago president Patrick Arnold
announced the change in the regular panorama competition,
instituting the categorization of small, medium and large
for the annual event, which was non-existent before.
Since then, it has been interesting to watch the anxious and
determined interplay of the bands as they jockeyed for
honors in the two smaller categories over the past six
years. One of the main disappointments for the 2009
season would have occurred in the small steel orchestra
category, with the inability of Merrytones Steel Orchestra
to make it into the finals, and barely playing their way
into the semis. It was also the first time in several
years they were without regular arranger Seion Gomez.
With him at the helm, Merrytones had secured two of three
consecutive championships (2005—2006), and second and third
place for 2007 and 2008, respectively. Their first
title in 2004 was with then-arranger Duvone Stewart.
With the
2009 panorama finals over for the small and medium
orchestras, focus now shifts to the finals in the large
conventional orchestra category, coming off also at the
Queen’s Park Savannah in Port-of-Spain, on Saturday February
21, 2009.
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