Representative from the Antigua Girls’ High School (centre), Princess Margaret School (right) and St Joseph’s Academy (left) share the winners circle after Saturday’s Secondary School Panorama Competition.
The Antigua Girls’ High School is the 2015 Secondary Schools Panorama champion.
The all-female institution beat out seven other schools to take the top spot in Saturday night’s competition held at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium.
This is the first time AGHS has captured the title in the competition’s history and arranger Gavin Francis said the elation hasn’t quite sunk in yet.
“It really is a lot of effort. We started the song in about the second or third week of September… and the girls were the ones to come to me. They were ready and anxious to get the ball rolling. They put together the committee to oversee everything, so it really was a lot easier on me.”
The girls’ rendition of Ole Time Something by Boasta stole the hearts of not only the judges, but the audience as well. Francis said the trick to doing any arrangement is having a clear plan.
“Try to tell story, stick with the theme of what you’re doing. So I just tried to do that from start to finish, really. I tried a little different harmony in the beginning, and as the song progressed I used snippets of the old time style of pan arranging, just tying in a modern flair with it. It has to be fun and exciting. We even had a little dance break for the girl.”
While some might have characterized the dance break as a risky move Francis said that, too, served a purpose.
“It wasn’t just a dance break for the sake of it. It was showing the progression of the rhythm section as well,” he explained. “We started with just the cowbell, then the iron came in and then the drums and so
on.”
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