Alpha Pan Pioneers to start small conventional finals

Tobago band Alpha Pan Pioneers will be the first band playing at the 2023 Panorama small conventional finals on January 14.

The draw for playing positions took place at the VIP Lounge, Queen’s Park Savannah on January 10.

The semifinals of the competition took place on January 7 and the top sixteen bands moved on to the finals.

Uptown Fascinators – the band with the leading points out of the semis – will perform in ninth position.

Traditionally, fourteen bands go on to the finals but, to mark its diamond jubilee, two additional bands were added.

Pan Trinbago president Beverley Ramsey-Moore thanked the bands for their work and added there was improved quality among them.

She said commended all of the bands for their performances at the semifinals.

While the organisation was happy about the use of arrangers in the small band category, the organisation was concerned about the social media trend of arrangers being pitted against each other.

Ramsey-Moore said the focus was about Panorama, the bands and the execution by players.

She called on band leaders to ensure that the “band is the brand and not the arrangement.”

The pan movement had already been through that, she said.

Playing positions for small conventional finals:

1. Alpha Pan Pioneers

2. Highlanders Steel Orchestra

3. Arima Golden Symphony

4. Tobago Pan Thers

5. St Margaret’s Super Stars

6. C &B Crown Cordaans

7. Westside Symphony

8. Panosonic Connections

9. Uptown Fascinators

10. Genesis Pan Groove

11. Fascinators Pan Symphony

12. T&TEC New Eastside Dimension

13. TT Defence Force

14. Fusion Steel

15. Southern Stars

16. Road Block Steel Orchestra