Mark Loquan: A giant in Trinidad and Tobago's culture

Ray Funk

Mark Loquan was an amazing man who lived a life of many accomplishments and deservedly in 2024 he received TT’s highest honour, the Order of the Republic of TT. Most of those celebrating his achievements have focused on his accomplishments in his work in the oil and gas industry where his skills brought him to work not just in TT but from Norway to Africa to Australia and then to head the National Gas Company until his retirement last year. But I write of his amazing and devoted work in the arts and especially in the steelpan world which must be told and celebrated because what he did was overwhelmingly important and unique.

Loquan, 63, died on April 6, some 14 months after he was diagnosed with brain cancer. He funeral service will be held on April 14, at St Finbar's RC Church, Diego Martin.

In the early 1990s, he became mesmerised by going to the panyards and decided he must play pan. He joined Silver Stars under the leadership of Edwin Pouchet that changed his life. He would devote himself to composing for pan and over the years his compositions were chosen for Panorama and festival compositions. None were more successful than Colours Again which was performed by dozens of steelbands in the 2006 Panorama competitions at levels from junior and single pan to large band and later by steelbands in events and competitions from the US, Canada, England, Sweden and Japan. He worked closely with many great arrangers and his longtime producer Junior “Ibo” Joseph and distinguished singers like Destra Garcia, Denyse Plummer and Terri Lyons. When he was based in Perth, Australia he started the first steelband there.

His involvement with pan led him to look for what was lacking, what needed doing, and how he could help. He looked up to Pat Bishop as a mentor and met regularly with her in this regard. He saw the need for further music education for young pannists, about the preservation by music notation, and how to celebrate those who were leading the way.

His concerns about music education for young pannists led Loquan to becoming the founding director of the now inactive Music Literacy Trust that for many years worked on expanding education programmes at various steelbands around the country and in the City Angels programme in Port of Spain. Post graduate scholarships were given to leading young pannists like Amrit Samaroo, Seion Gomez, Barry Mannette, and Vanessa Headley-Brewster and in pan transcription.

Loquan saw the need to transcribe and preserve the amazing arrangements of pan performance in Panorama and other competitions or they could be lost. This came from his time in Sliver Stars as he mentioned later in a tribute to Pouchet.

“Edwin was busy arranging several new pieces of music, with some being truly outstanding. Unfortunately, some of the songs would disappear from the repertoire as players left or as people forgot their parts with time.”

Through the Music Literacy Trust, several of Pouchet’s compositions were fully scored.

The creation of written pan arrangements so they would not be lost would be a focus of his work for years to come so that pannists around the world could perform these arrangements. He worked with Simeon Sanch on the Pan in Education CDs, which offered not just the music CD but a second one with music notation set up so any music teacher could have scores that could be passed out to students.

This series produced two of his own compositions and ones featuring Jit Samaroo and Ray Holman compositions. This led to a secondary school steelband up in Alaska winning an award at the finals of the state school music festival for their performance of Loquan’s composition The Challenge is Minor because of the access to the charts that the Pan in Education CD gave to the band leader.

This passion for written scores evolved as Loquan worked closely with Dr Mia Gormandy-Benjamin, assistant professor at UTT and head of the steelpan programme there to create PanNotation, an important subscription library of lead sheets, musical scores, and academic articles for pannists.

She noted, “Mark was an absolute joy to work with. His genuine passion for the arts shone through in every project he undertook, where ideas were transformed into meaningful realities that touched many lives. I am so incredibly blessed to have had the opportunity to work closely with him on projects such as Pan Kingdom and the Virtual Steelband II, his 20th anniversary celebration, the Women in Pan series and PanNotation. I have no doubt that his impact will endure as we all strive to honour his legacy in our ongoing efforts."

Loquan saw the need for the corporate world to support the arts and the importance of corporate sponsorship for steelbands. As head of NGC, he worked to be a leader in such support for the arts beyond pan to their support of Bocas and Film Festival. During the Carnival season, he regularly took a busload of oil executives on a panyard crawl to share his joy as the steelbands prepared for Panorama.

When based for a few years far from home in Perth, Australia, he formed and led a local steelband there. But that is just a part of what he was doing. He was always offering support and praise for pannists he admired in and out of TT from Ken “Professor” Philmore in TT to Liam Teague in the US and Michael "Manish" Robinson in Japan.

In 2020, he premiered his song Better Tomorrow sung by Lyons, and from its title evolved an amazing series of documentary films on aspects and innovations in the pan world. Gerelle Forbes produced and directed Pan on the Move, a film on Ray Holman. And then Loquan collaborated with photographer and filmmaker Maria Nunes who worked with him on four projects between 2022 and 2024. The first highlighted Uni Stars and National Steel Symphony Orchestra director Kareem Brown, followed by a ten-part series on Women in Pan, then Duvone Stewart: the Man Behind the Music with Pan Universe on the Siparia Deltones being the final one released last August.

Nunes just posted on Facebook, “I will be forever filled with gratitude to have had such a wonderful opportunity to work so closely with such an extraordinary, generous and deeply sincere man.”

In the summer of 2023 with the creation of World Steelpan Day, the Ministry of Trade and Industry appointed Loquan as the chairman on a steering committee of stakeholders in the pan world holding weekly meetings to focus on an implementation plan and strategy to support the development of the steelpan industry.

This work continues under Dr Clement Imbert, chairman of the Board of Governors at UTT, after a long career in the Engineering department at UWI focused on pan technology. Imbert knew Loquan first decades ago when he was a student at UWI in Engineering.

“He was not yet involved in pan then but when he did he achieved such great things. He set the tone for this committee, its terms of reference and work plan which we have followed and expect to have a report in the not too distant future," Imbert said.

There is a website and a YouTube channel on Loquan so the details, audio and video of his long and complex career are available and documented. In an interview several years ago with Nasser Khan, he talked of the need to “plan for the future, [focus on] how can you make a difference…by making a positive contribution with your time, intellect and energy.”

Loquan lived that life. He was driven to dream and to work for a better tomorrow.