The business of pan is one that concerns pan lovers, pan players, and pan enthusiasts.
The Ministry of Culture and Community Development brought together key stakeholders and members of the public for the first instalment of the ‘Business of Mas’ consultations, focusing on the advancement of the steelpan.
Pannist Joshua Regrello argued that there should be as much focus on the steelpan as an individual instrument as there is on the bands themselves.
“I think we do need a lot of help in taking pan further from a managerial level and I can speak as someone who is a soloist and struggles with that. I think one of the ways to fix that is in the schools, whether it be UTT or UWI we are ensuring that they’re learning the business of pan, and I like the way this is phrased. Are we ensuring that they understand contracts? Are we ensuring that they understand the management?”
One contributor, Ms. Bruce Byron, noted that integrating young people with behavioural challenges into pan yards has proved successful in shaping their behaviour and therefore urged the panel to invest more in enhancing the pan yard model.
“I have had a few students with learning challenges as a music educator, and I saw the fruits and the benefits of the steelpan intervention into their learning and development, and we don’t pay much attention. In most cases, ‘Oh, this child is giving trouble. Send them to play pan. Send them in the pan yards,’ and we get those students and we develop them into the persons that they are.”
With a passion for pan and music, educator Dr. Roger Henry highlighted the cultural heritage that pan yards and Panorama represent.
“Nowhere else can someone walk into a rehearsal hall on day one of the rehearsal and watch music get created minute by minute, sitting there watching it happen. That is our cultural heritage of the pan yard, and nobody talks about it, and I’m here to talk about it because I feel that there’s a blind spot in the pan community.”
While youth participation is high among pan players, another contributor, Reza Baptiste, noted a lack of young people in the audience. He said more must be done to encourage youth engagement beyond just performing.
“Youths, you seeing all the youths, right? You see them playing, and you say youth there, but we are not doing a proper school programme for the youths. Start pan in primary schools. There are many young persons who started off young, three years, five years, and you never know how far these young ones can go.”
As consultations continue, the Ministry is hopeful that these dialogues will foster a more sustainable and business-oriented environment for the national instrument and Carnival at large.