‘Young Arrangers’

Having done arrangements for twenty-two Panoramas, seven Pan Down Memory Lane and five Pan in the 21st Century Competitions, Carlan Sheldon Shurwayne Harewood is no stranger to the pan world.  This 29-year old performer spends most of his days happily behind his tenor pan.  Not only a former Captain, and 12-year member of the National Symphony Steel Orchestra (NSSO), Carlan is also the arranger for his own single pan band, Trinidad East Side Symphony.

His life in the pan yard started when he was just a child, in Potential Symphony, which was led by his father, Trevor Adolphus Gildon. It was with this band, that Carlan, at age 14, did his first arrangement of Lord Nelson’s classic “La La.”

Carlan will confess that pan is his passion, and it is what brings him his success today; however, this pan man is also known to have a soft spot for football.  When he attended San Juan Senior Comprehensive, he was the captain of the school’s football team, and his peers respected him both as a footballer and as a panist. He was soon forced by his father to make a decision, and has committed his career to the steelpan ever since. He can still be caught however, at football games and sometimes even on the field.

Friends, family members, performers and pan men alike, would agree with the great talents of “Panman,” a name he normally goes by. He has played the National Instrument alongside many performers such as Sugar Aloes, Baron, De Original Defosto, Jah Cure, Stevie Wonder and Hugh Masekela, just to name a few.

For the 2010 Carnival season, Panman, like other young/upcoming arrangers, has made a contribution with his own pan song.  Carlan’s composition, “Young Arrangers” is sung by Chucky and arranged by Kareem Brown.  Produced in the new ‘Green Room,’ this and other compositions by NSSO members can be heard on a soon-to-be-released compilation called “Pan for Peace.”  More is expected from these ‘Young Arrangers,’ who have no intentions of disappointing their listeners.