Pan aficionado and arranger Khan Cordice is warning that poor showings like Thursday night’s school’s panorama competition could put the future of the art form at risk.
Cordice, a teacher at both the Clare Hall Secondary School and the St Joseph’s Academy, is also an arranger for the Hellsgate Steel Orchestra.
A number of issues at the event led to scores of students being left at the YASCO Sports Complex into the wee hours of Friday morning.
“Last night I got home after three after taking students home that I don’t know,” he said. “There was a young girl who played with a primary school that I had to take home after three in the morning. These are the kinds of issues that we’re having.”
Some students were even left to push their racks through St John’s back to their respective schools.
“At one, two o’clock in the morning I was there with two teachers, the arranger and these students helping them to push these racks all the way back down to Gambles, and again, no police escort, no nothing. It was terrible.”
Cordice told OBSERVER media parents have already lodged numerous complaints about their children’s participation in the event.
“I’ve gotten a couple of complaints. One of them got as far as he’s not going to ever play pan again because this is ridiculous. There’s always some technical issues and we understand. We know things happen but the things that happened last night weren’t supposed to happen if things were properly in place.”
Replies
This continues to be the story of pan, even in Panland. At the end of the day it's all about management.
It can either make or break the organisation.
Don't give up the fight. Get up stand up.
SOME PEOPLE LOVE PAN MUSIC....
SOME PEOPLE LOVE TO PLAY PAN MUSIC......
BUT A LOT OF PEOPLE DO NOT LOVE OR RESPECT "PAN" THE INSTRUMENT.......HOW SAD !!
Getting the instruments back home is the most common problem steelbands face anywhere, one would hope that their management people focus more on this area to avoid such problems.