Perspectives on Panorama | Women in Pan, Episode 5

In Episode 5 of the “Women in Pan” 10-part series, under the A Better Tomorrow banner, Yuko Asada, Dr. Mia Gormandy-Benjamin, Vanessa Headley, Michelle Huggins-Watts, and Natasha Joseph share their perspectives on Panorama in Trinidad & Tobago and Panorama-style steelband competitions the world over.
The “Women in Pan” series ( / markloquanmusic ) continues in the coming weeks with in-depth interviews with each of our women in pan:
• October 14 - Vanessa Headley
• October 21 - Dr. Mia Gormandy-Benjamin
• October 28 - Yuko Asada
• November 4 - Natasha Joseph
• November 11 - Michelle Huggins-Watts
THE “WOMEN IN PAN” TEAM
• Executive Producers: Mark Loquan & Maria Nunes
• Director & Editor: Maria Nunes
• Associate Producer: Caroline Taylor
• Interviewer: Attillah Springer
#ABetterTomorrow #WomenInPan #trinidadandtobago #Steelpan

[@martin.jhorsford5645]

UNTED WE STAND- Excellent. A collaborative effort is needed to take Pan forward at an accelerated rate. In all areas including Social Media.⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

[@ej.entertainmentsteelpan]

Insightful discussion, excellent points raised. Looking forward to the next!

[@bryanjoseph5721]

This has been my favourite of the series thus far. Panorama in Trinidad remains the pinnacle of a steelband movement that has come a long way with great musicality from the arrangers and players. Its spirit was summed up by Yuko Asada's description of her "high" on the Drag and on stage where communal worship brings that feeling of ecstasy. It remains a tragedy that many of our great arrangements have been lost other than within poor extracts of TTT's badly engineered coverage. We need to preserve the past better so that future students can extract and play the music. These should be part of our National Archives - perhaps an exercise for UTT. Competition drives us all to be better and more creative and this should not be eliminated. The measurement of creativity will always be a problem and it was great to have the insights of the ladies on how this could be solved. They are right in better education of the judges is a great start. Transparency and feedback, at least at the panyard performance stage would also help. Finally, Trinidad needs to stop being so insular in its "not invented here" thinking. We should be embracing arrangers such as Andy Narell who come from outside of our traditions rather than being suspicious of them when they join in. Congratulations to Maria and Mark for a great series thus far.

[@MarkLoquanMusic]

Thanks Bryan, Yes Yuko summed up the spirit very well, which I have also experienced. Appreciate your feedback.

[@tonyob2455]

Thanks for the episodes. Excellent points made by each member of the group and I sincerely believe that together panorama and its judging can climb to higher levels. I believe that the competition plays an important role in the evolution of the steel pan and it should never stop. Yuko Asada, I know the feeling you spoke about that you felt on the drag, That pan jumbie took the hold of me when I was just a 7yr old and its caged. 😃