Vishanna Phagoo
Candice Andrews-Burmant has a mixture of blood and pan running through her veins. The 46-year-old BP Renegades Steel Orchestra captain is celebrating 32 years as a band member – 11 of those as captain. She believes it is her love for the national instrument and for discipline that makes her a great fit in the leadership position.
“It’s really challenging, but I love leading because I am a very disciplined person. I like discipline, so I try to enforce that. You will never see me doing something opposite to what I say to the players. It was a journey and it is a task because I am a woman, but I must say that I do get the respect from the players both men and women.”
She said having people look up to her is “really an honour” especially since her seven-year-old daughter, McKenzie, gets to see her mother in a leadership capacity.
“The other day one of my tuners went to tune a band and he messaged me and said ‘Every band I go in, everyone is only talking about you and saying you’re the best captain they’ve ever seen and you’re a really strong woman.’ I mean, I am very humble, so I just brush these things away, but deep down inside it makes me feel good and to know that my daughter can see her mother being respected by so many people all over the world.”
Andrews-Burmant said she first started playing pan while she was a student at Woodbrook Government School before deciding to play with a band.
[caption id="attachment_995861" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Renegades Steel Orchestra captain Candice Andrews-Brumant says her transition from being a regular player to captain was a rollercoaster ride. -[/caption]
“I used to live next to Renegades panyard with my grandmother and two of my uncles played in the band as well. One of my uncles started playing in the band when it first started and the other just used to play. I always liked the sound of the steelpan, so I used to go by the gate of the panyard and listen. My mother’s friend would come and pick me up because I was under age and he would take me inside the panyard.
"I found myself always wanting to hear the band and to go to the Savannah with the band. In form three, I played pan in school not in a big way, but I would play the anthem and these things and at the age of 15, I decided I wanted to start playing pan. Seeing as though I was living by the panyard, it wasn’t a problem, it was just a matter of doing my school work too, but I was willing to do it.”
But she is convinced her musical inclination didn't come about by chance. Andrews-Burmant said her dad's involvement in another band as an arranger had a lot to do with her love for the national instrument, and she feels duty-bound to pass it on to her offspring.
“I was and am the only female in my family to play pan.”
But although many of her female relatives are not drawn to the steelpan like she was, she is trying to change that by introducing her daughter to it.
“I bought a pan for my daughter, but my daughter likes doing plenty things, so she isn’t attached to the ste
