Nine times Panorama Champions Bp Renegades Steel Orchestra left Trinidad on August 23 for a tour of Japan. The group, led by Captain Candice Andrews, comprises of tenor players Levi Ettienne, Kain Cox, and Kershiff Perry; Double-tenor player Cleveland King, and Double-guitar player Jessica Bentick. The Bassist are Kayesha Ollivierre, Ayesha Moses and and Rudolph Grant. Also making the trip are cellist Anthony Crichlow and Aaron Franklin; percussionist Andrew Brumant, Vance Romain and Juma Simmons, together with Double-second players Ishmael Wharton and Candice herself.
During the eight days in the ‘Land of the Rising sun’, Renegades will present four concerts, the first at Okayama General Cultural Theatre in Okayama on August 26th; the second on August 28th at the Mitaka City Arts Foundation. The third on August 29 will be held at the Yokosuka Arts Theatre in Yokosuka Kanagawa and the fourth on August 30 at the Shinjuku Cultural Theatre in Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo. The band will perform a mix of classical, pop, R & B, jazz and Caribbean music. They will also hold two workshops in Okayama on August 26, and Mitaka on August 28.
This is Renegades tenth visit to Japan. They first toured there in 1992 and have been invited back repeatedly to perform and carry on workshops. In 1993, they performed at the Sukiyaki Meets the World Festival in Helios and at the Earth Celebration on Sado Island, during which they were featured in a command performance with the famous Kodo Drummers of Japan and the Kangsadan Orchestra of Thailand.
Renegades were also instrumental in the formation of the Sukiyaki Steel Orchestra (SSO) of Nanto city, Toyama, Japan. Tenor pannist Brian Brumant, who is currently in the USA furthering his studies in music, spent a total of eight months there between 1995 and 1998, training the Japanese to play the instrument. His brother, Renegades current drummer and former captain, Andrew Brumant also had two, two-month stints in 1997 and 1998, working with the SSO.
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