Ace pan arranger Duvone Stewart has copped the Panorama triple crown—leading bp Renegades and Pan Elders to victory in the large and medium steelband finals at Queen’s Park Savannah, Port-of-Spain, on Sunday morning.

The Tobago-born arranger, 42, scored his first victory with Defence Force Steel Orchestra which won the small steelband Panorama at Skinner Park, San Fernando, on Thursday night.

In a marathon Panorama performance, 19 bands—nine large and ten medium—thrilled pan aficionados with scintillating music.

But it was clearly Renegades, however, which continued its dominance with its now 11th victory and a three-peat of wins since 2017 with Stewart’s arrangement of Darryl “Farmer Nappy” Henry’s Hookin Meh, one of the Carnival’s most popular songs.

The Charlotte Street band was in the lead in this year’s large band competition throughout the preliminaries and semifinals

Stewart said his victory was only a part of a journey to raise the profile of pan internationally.

He broke down in tears on the Savannah stage after learning of his historic victory.

“The win, medium, small, large conventional 2019 can be equalled. It can be broken but my name is in the history books. And I vividly embrace and I hope young arrangers respect it likewise and build from it,”

said Stewart, who described the success as unforgettable.

He said if his success meant that he was the new standard bearer for the fraternity, he would be “willing to take on the challenge”.

“From Scarborough, Tobago, to the Savannah, it’s a journey, it was a journey and it will always continue to be a journey. As long as I live I will always continue to preach pan. I will continue to preach the love for this instrument that made me the individual that I am. And I’m always going to be the flagship, the new flagship of this instrument.

“This victory is for pan. This victory is for the new executive which just formed to take pan back to where it is supposed to be and to the president and to the executive running a successful, energetic, loving Panorama season,” said Stewart, “To everybody outside, pan is alive. In pan we trust and pan is the winner.”

He paid tribute to icons like Len “Boogsie” Sharpe and other arrangers who influenced him and called on his contemporaries to build similar profiles in pan to inspire the future.

“We have a lot of arrangers who made me who I am. Len Boogsie, Leah Scoon Edwards, Clive Brathwaithe, you name it. These guys paved the way for us to be where I am at,” said Stewart, “Whenever I try to make music I try to make the blind see and make the deaf hear with all the arrangements that I have done in my life.”

Stewart hailed Renegades as one of the greatest steelbands in the world, after leading them to their 11th Panorama victory. He said it was too early to consider the possibility of the band recreating its hat-trick of wins from 1995 to 1997 but rather wanted to savour his win for now.

“I’m happy, I’m blessed. Every arranger’s dream is to win this championship, this Superbowl. This granted space that we all come together to showcase our skill, our musical ideology with what we put forward for this event. Everybody wants to win but only one could win, two could win, three could win.”
He said he was going after the win again, should he be able to next year.