Patrons attending the 2017 First Citizens Pan Fusion will not only enjoy performances of a variety of musical genres but this event will feature a tribute to musician, the late Adrian “Boo” Husbands.
Event Coordinator, Karen Pestaina revealed this recently while addressing a press conference held at First Citizens Office, Regus Building at #1 Welches, St. Thomas.
This year is the seventh edition of First Citizens Pan Fusion and it occurs on July 14th at Ilaro Court. Pestaina further explained that this event, which will carry the theme “Legends and Prodigies” will comprise four segments. Two of the latter sections will be “Track vs Steel” and the After Party which will feature entertainer, Lil Rick. Meanwhile the former segments will have a different focus with the section, “Uncut” featuring Trinidadian musician, Dane Gulston.
“We have broken Pan Fusion into four sections. The first being the tribute to Boo Husbands. When I wanted to do this, the first person that I could think of was Nicholas Brancker, he was extremely close to Boo. So Nicholas and a lot of Boo’s friends will be coming together and even though Boo does not have any original music, we knew the wide expanse of different genres that Boo loved and this is what is going to be portrayed by Nicholas and his friends. Then we go onto a section called Uncut, our very own [David] “ZigE” Walcott and his band, Azúcar Orchestra… ZigE has put together various pannists, all different ages to be performing and is going to give us some wonderful music.”
Also addressing the press conference was Chief Executive Officer of the National Cultural Foundation, Cranston Browne. He told the media that the popularity of the First Citizens Pan Fusion event has been intensifying.
“The growing interest in this event reached its pinnacle with over 1000 attending in 2016, its largest patronage to date. You can expect the usual pantastic experience with a line-up highlighting the best of local, regional and international musicians performing various genres of music fused with the steel pan music from some of the finest pannists, saxophonists and percussionists in the region.”
Meanwhile, in her remarks Chief Executive Officer of First Citizens Bank, Carole Jean Marie shared her delight about the growth. She said the bank was “pleased to see how the event has grown over the years catering to a wide cross section of young, middle age and older musicians as well as patrons and the like. In particular, I am proud… of the quality of the production including the delivery and the overall content of the Pan Fusion programme that has always remained consistently high with a spectacular fusion of local, regional and international musicians delivering an interestingly high quality mix of traditional and contemporary performances under the stars.”(MG)