Pan lovers attending Pan With The Saints on May 26, at St Mary’s College have been promised 150 minutes of pan music at its best.
Pan with The Saints is one of the events being staged throughout the year 2013 to mark the Sesquicentennial (150th) anniversary of the arrival of The Holy Ghost Fathers in this country and also the founding of St Mary’s College. Pan With The Saints will showcase five of the steel orchestras that have deep roots in St Mary’s College, in that past students of St Mary’s either founded them or led them for significant periods over the years.
While there are a number of bands that meet the foregoing criteria, time and space constraints allow for only five of them to be accommodated in this inaugural edition of the event. In determining which of the “CIC-related” steel orchestras would be invited to participate this year, the organising committee chose those with the oldest and strongest associations with the College.
So it is that the organising committee arrived at birdsong, Witco Desperadoes, Republic Bank Exodus, PCS Silver Stars and White Oak Starlift steel orchestras. They will be joined by host band, the St Mary’s College Pan Ensemble.
None of the five big bands has disclosed its repertoire for the 25 minutes allocated to each band, but they have all thrown down the gauntlet to one another. At last week’s media launch of the event, all of them made it clear that they are coming to impress pan aficionados and die-hard supporters. Although the event is not a competition, all of the bands want to establish bragging rights at this inaugural edition. Each band has issued a call to their supporters to come out in their numbers to spur them on to excellence while enjoying the evening.
The CIC ensemble faces a challenge in that just like their sports teams, they lose members who graduate from the College at the end of each school year. That means that they have to almost start all over every year. At this time, the Form Five and Form Six members of the ensemble are into exams so their talents are not available to the group. To compensate for this, the members who are in Forms One to Four have begun to practise during their lunch breaks. They are being prepared by their music teacher Michelle Marfan, who is being assisted by composer/arranger Ray Holman with some of their selections.
Admission fee to the event is just $150 and tickets are available from: the Past Students’ office (623-0874); Principal’s office (623-8835); Cleve’s on Frederick Street; Crosby’s in St James (622-7622; Gregg Mannette (678-7555); Jeffrey Claverie (735-8070); Nestor Lambert (682-3310); and, other members of the CIC Past Students' Management Committee.
Entrance to the venue is on Pembroke Street, Port-of-Spain, and free secured parking will be available at Atlantic Energy car park, upper Pembroke Street.