Reported By Dana Malcolm
News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. April 30, 2021: The countdown has begun to the 2021 staging of the highly anticipated steelpan competition – PanoGrama – The World Cup of Steelpan.
Forty-five participants, who auditioned from a whopping 13 countries, – 5 more than the previous staging – will hit the virtual stage on May 7th-9th in the preliminary round of the competition.
This will be followed by the semi-finals, slated for May 13th, and the finals on 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
Judges are Professor Liam Teague of Trinidad and Tobago along with world-renowned pannist Victor Provost (US Virgin Islands), Ojay Richards (Trinidad & Tobago), David ZigE Walcott (Barbados) and Andy Chichester (Grenada).
The winner of PanoGrama 2021 will receive a cash prize of USD $1,000, 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 the third-place winnerwill receive USD $500 cash and a virtual session with Provost.
PanoGrama will broadcast on Instagram (@pano.grama, YouTube – youtube.com/panograma) and Facebook – facebook.com/pano.grama1.
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
PanoGrama was founded by Nevin Roach. For more visit pano-grama.com for more information.
