Mama Dis Is Pan! - Steelpan performing artist Ray Holman in Concert

Global - Ray Holman - esteemed composer, arranger, and steel pan player, who holds the distinction for writing the first-own composition for the steelband in the National Steelband Panorama competition, will be taking you down memory lane with his highly anticipated Carnival 2012 musical presentation, Mama Dis Is Pan. This concert will feature Ray’s Panorama compositions and “Bomb” tunes played on J’Ouvert morning. Ray and his band will also treat audiences to a few of Lord Kitchener and Mighty Sparrow’s calypsoes performed by steelbands during Panorama.

Ray’s fans have been encouraging him to do this production for years, and this February he will deliver. Mama Dis Is Pan is carded for Thursday, 23^rd, Friday 24^th, and Saturday 25^th, February 2012 at 7:00 p.m. at the newly remodeled Little Carib Theatre, Woodbrook, Trinidad. Tickets are reasonably priced at TT$200.00 and will be available at the Little Carib’s Box Office or by calling 1 (868) 482-8713.

About Ray Holman

Ray Holman, is a composer, arranger and pan player, and is perhaps the most esteemed proponent of his art form internationally.

He has arranged and recorded with steel bands and artists in the U.S., Canada, Latin America, Japan and Europe, including televised performances with the German National Orchestra which showcased his compositions.  He composed the highly acclaimed score for Black Orpheus, staged by Crossroads Theatre Company in New Jersey in 1991, and has performed for film, television and at venues such as Madison Square Garden, the Super Bowl and the St. Lucia Jazz Festival.

A graduate of the University of the West Indies and former high school teacher, he conducts workshops throughout the U.S.  During 1998-2000, he was a Visiting Artist at the University of Washington, Seattle.  Ray has won many prestigious awards, including the Hummingbird Silver Medal of Merit from the Government of Trinidad and Tobago and a Pan Legend Award from the New York Arts Institute and the U.S. Congress.

Ray began playing Pan at 13 with Invaders Steelband, led by legendary Ellie Mannette, and later became its arranger.  At 20, he won the solo Ping Pong (tenor pan) competition in the 1964 Trinidad and Tobago Music Festival.  Ray’s innovative arrangements won two National Steelband Panorama championships for Starlift in 1969 and 1971.  In 1972, he became the first arranger to write music for Panorama.  Ray continues to delight audiences worldwide with the timeless quality of his music.