We ready fi di road! The 2021 staging of the highly anticipated steelpan competition PanoGrama – The World Cup of Steelpan has hit the ground running and the preliminaries are coming your way soon. The PanoGrama Entertainment team is excited to announce that audition submissions for this year’s competition more than doubled the previous staging’s total number of competitors. The 45 participants who auditioned hailed from a whopping 13 countries, (5 more than the previous staging) including Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Canada, England, France, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, Trinidad & Tobago, the US Virgin Islands and the USA.
Returning to the virtual stage, PanoGrama will broadcast its three rounds of competition on Instagram (@pano.grama), YouTube (youtube.com/panograma) and Facebook (facebook.com/pano.grama1), starting with the preliminaries set for May 7th-9th followed by the semifinals slated for May 13th and the finals set for May 22nd. Reigning champion Earl Brooks Jr. of Trinidad & Tobago will be back to defend his title against the 29 hungry musicians, whose auditions qualified them for the preliminary round. A total of 10 participants will be eliminated each round. The participants who qualified for the preliminaries are as follows:
- Antigua & Barbuda: Maurisha Potter, Japhon Barthley, Demetre Samuel, Kevhani Greenaway and Samanya Brazier
- Barbados: Andre Forde
- Canada: Gabriel Chartrand
- England: Douglas Dallaway
- France: Mathieu Borgne
- Grenada: Mikiel Smith
- Guyana: Detroy Dey
- St. Lucia: Al Alexander
- Trinidad & Tobago: Tyeesha Alexander, Keishaun Julien, Dejean Cain, Dejea Cain, Shaquille Forbes, Jamel Cadette, Aquila Pereira, Charlton Alfonso, Megan-Leigh Langton-Attang, Shovon Brown, Vivian Williams, Hanif Goodridge, Kion Robinson, Carlon Lyons
- US Virgin Islands (St. Thomas): Leroi Simmonds
- USA: David Yundi, Matthew Kiser
Professor Liam Teague of Trinidad and Tobago sits on the adjudication panel along with world-renowned pannist Victor Provost (US Virgin Islands), Ojay Richards (Trinidad & Tobago), David ZigE Walcott (Barbados) and Andy Chichester (Grenada).
Organiser Nevin Roach indicated that the winner of PanoGrama 2021 will receive a cash prize of USD $1000, a trip to Canada for the Sons of Steel concert, a virtual session with steelpan virtuoso Victor Provost, an appearance fee and an Augustus Peters Steelpans Low C Tenor Pan package. The runner-up will receive USD $800 cash and a virtual session with Provost, while third-place will receive USD $500 cash and a virtual session with Provost.
All participants in the preliminary round will receive a brand new pair of MalletMan pan sticks and access to webinars geared towards musical and professional development. An exclusive career guidance webinar was also hosted for the participants and members of the public by the one and only Paganini of steelpan Liam Teague. All semifinalists will receive a copy of the #1Steelpan App GOLD and all finalists will not only receive an EnSoul Pan Pickup but an appearance fee as well! With the stakes so high the competition promises to be fierce, you don’t want to miss it!
PanoGrama would like to thank its sponsors Pan Trinbago, Sons of Steel, Augustus Peters Steelpans, Pan Arts Network, R Smith Creations, E-Pan, #1 Steelpan App GOLD, Co-operators General Insurance, iNev88, Emineo Caribbean and the MalletMan.
Visit pano-grama.com for more information.
