Gerelle Forbes: Singer,
songwriter, actor, stage
manager, musician and
teacher – are all the titles of Ms Gerelle Forbes. The 22 year-old has completed the Certificate of Music at the University of The West Indies (UWI) and is now preparing to study Musical Theatre outside of Trinidad. Originally a violinist, Gerelle learnt the
timpani and marimba at the UWI, but when it came to the steelpan, there was no hesitation.
Gerelle attended St. Francois Girls’ College, where she first played the instrument. She was the captain of the school's steel orchestra for
two years before she left. She also represented her school at the Junior Soca Monarch competition numerous times, placing 3rd in her final year. She recently left teaching to focus on her studies and to work alongside other talented musicians.
Gerelle was the
lyricist for
Pan Victory
vocalized by Mickiel
Gabriel, which did
indeed bring
‘victory’ to the
Junior National
Panorama champs
Success Stars Pan
Sounds as their tune
of choice in the
2012 competition.
For the 2013
Panorama season
Gerelle’s lyrical
skills have again
been called upon for the track featured
here,
Champions,
while her vocal
talents can be heard
on
Sapna (The Dream).
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Carlon Harewood
Carlon Sheldon
Shurwayne Harewood:
Carlon
has been arranging
for steel pan for
23 years.
His arrangements
have played out in
fourteen
Panoramas, placing
2nd with Potential
Symphony in 2004,
and with Trinidad
East Side (his own
Single Pan Band) in 2012. This 33
year-old musician
spends most of his
days happily behind
his tenor pan. Carlon is also a
former Captain, and
14 year-member of
the National
Symphony Steel
Orchestra (NSSO).
His life in the panyard started when
he was just a child
in Potential
Symphony, then led by his father,
Trevor Adolphus
Gildon. It was with
this band that Carlon, at age 14,
did his first
arrangement - of Lord
Nelson’s, “La La”.
Carlon will
confess that Pan is
his passion, and it
is what brings him
his success today.
However, this panman is known to also
have a soft spot for
football. When
he attended San Juan
Senior
Comprehensive, he
was the captain of
the school’s
football team. His
peers respected him
both as a footballer
and a panist. He was
soon forced by his
father to make a
decision, and has
committed to the
steelpan instrument
as his career
ever
since. Carlon can still
be caught however,
at football games
and sometimes even
on the field.
Friends, family, performers
and panmen alike,
would agree on the
great talents of “Panman,” a name he normally
goes by.
Carlon has
played Pan, his
country’s national
instrument alongside
many performers such
as calypsonians Sugar Aloes,
Baron, The Original Defosto
Himself, Jah
Cure, Stevie Wonder
and Hugh Masekela,
just to name a few.
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