Panmotion concerts to keep pannists online

HE first brought Panograma, the Instagram pan competition held during the height of covid19 restrictions and lockdowns. Now Nevin Roach has devised another online pan event to keep the national instrument in the public’s consciousness during the pandemic.

The Tobago pannist held Panograma from April 24-May 3.

In WhatsApp responses to Newsday, Roach said Panmotion was “born to provide more opportunities for pannists to promote their talents.”

Panmotion is an online concert series where a selected pannist will play a selection of songs for one hour every Thursday, starting from June 11. Panmotion will run until the end of August and will feature local, regional and international pannists.

“On the heels of a historic and successful Panograma, many people were left wanting more. However, I knew it would be too much to pull off another huge undertaking of the same level or higher in quick succession, and there were many things I wanted to improve on first. I also wanted Panograma to be a platform that was more than just an entertaining competition,” he said.

Some of the pannists who entered the Panograma competition said they received some calls to set up gigs and so Roach wanted to keep that momentum going and so he came up with Panmotion. He said keeping the momentum going would be “very important” as the world returns to normalcy.

Panmotion joins a number of online events and concerts being held by the pan fraternity, including BP Renegades’ Beat The Pandemic online concert series on Wednesdays and Republic Bank Exodus Steel Orchestra’s Pan Ramajay competition. The Pan Ramajay competition runs from June 13-27 and “is open to pan musicians internationally, regardless of time zone/country and is designed to feature soloists, duos and quartets using any instrument in the pan family.”

Roach said, “it is great to see everyone contributing to the upkeep of a vibrant steelpan community. It is even more important during this time where so much is taking place in the world. Music soothes the soul.”

Panmotion will also be used to stand in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, he said. Each pannist will play special song selections in support of the movement.

The first concert will feature Antigua and Barbuda’s Amarni Gomes. Barbados’ Hashim Durant will be featured on June 18.

Panmotion will take place every Thursday from June 11 on Panograma’s Facebook page from 8 pm.