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22 September 2000Contact: Kanchan Paser For Immediate ReleaseTeaneck, New Jersey, USA, 22 September 2000….The SUNSHINE Awards™ organization today issued the following statement: 12th ANNUAL SUNSHINE AWARDS TO HONOR LORD KITCHENER WITH AN AWARD CATEGORY IN HIS NAMEThe SUNSHINE Awards™ will pay its highest tribute to the late Lord Kitchener, one of the greatest exponents of the art form of calypso, by giving one of its Award categories his name. The 1st Lord Kitchener SUNSHINE Award will be presented at the 12th Annual SUNSHINE Awards™, which will take place on Saturday, 21 October at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center at the Borough of Manhattan Community College. The SUNSHINE Awards™ has, for the past 12 years, presented an Award to the Trinidad & Tobago Steelband Panorama Champions. This October, for the first time, this Award will be known as the Lord Kitchener SUNSHINE Award. This will be the first time in the 12-year history of the SUNSHINE Awards™ that one of its Awards is named in honour of an individual. "There is perhaps no one more deserving of this honour than the Grandmaster himself," says Gil Figaro, Sr., Founder and Chairman of the SUNSHINE Awards™. "Lord Kitchener was a great calypsonian and a superb lyricist. His contribution to the art form and to the culture of Trinidad & Tobago and of the Caribbean is outstanding. He was a calypsonian of great musical stature and it is, therefore, only fitting that he be memorialized with a SUNSHINE Award named in his honour. "The decision to name this particular Award category in Kitchener's honour was based on the special relationship with the Steelband movement which Kitchener maintained throughout his career, which spanned over 60 years. Kitchener was probably the first calypsonian to pay tribute to performers of the steelpan with a calypso (The Beat of the Steelband) written in their honour. Every year, throughout his career, he continued to dedicate a calypso to these musicians as a way of giving recognition to the performers of this indigenous art form." Lord Kitchener was a calypsonian of great artistry, creativity and style. He
composed and performed calypsos in all categories: political, social, with the
occasional humorous songs, and he was a great influence for many calypsonians.
This will not be the first time that the SUNSHINE Awards™ has honoured him.
Kitchener was a recipient of several SUNSHINE Awards and he was one of only two
artistes who have thus far been awarded the SUNSHINE Awards™ Lifetime
Achievement Award, the other recipient being the Mighty Sparrow. Throughout his career, Lord Kitchener demonstrated a great affinity for the art form of steel pan music and, over the years, his pan compositions helped bring many Steel Orchestras to prominence. Perhaps, more than any other calypsonian, Kitchener had the greatest influence on the direction of the Panorama Steelband competition. Isaac McCloud, promoter of cultural events and longtime agent and manager for Kitchener, expressed his support for this tribute by the SUNSHINE Awards™, "Kitchener was very dedicated to steel pan music. Every year he was a strong contender in Panorama. Some years his songs placed 1st and 2nd in the competition. I think having a SUNSHINE Award in his name is a very good idea and I highly recommend it". The Trinidad & Tobago Steelband Panorama Competition is the largest festival of its kind in the entire Caribbean, each year drawing hundreds of competitors from across the width and breath of the twin-island State. Its 37-year history has seen 18 national titles awarded to bands playing calypsos written by Kitchener. He left us with "Pan Birthday" as his final contribution to the beautiful sounds of the steelpan, a musical art form to which he gave so much of himself and his creativity. Now an award in his own name will be another crown given to the annual Champions of this very popular and important music festival, the Steelband Panorama. Grandville Straker, record store owner in Brooklyn thinks having a SUNSHINE Award in Kitchener's name is a wonderful idea for, as he puts it, "…Apart from having won the most Road Marches in Carnival, Kitchener was one of the greatest composers on pan". Now the legacy of this great artiste, Grandmaster of Calypso, Road March King and calypsonian extraordinaire will be kept alive with the annual presentation of the Lord Kitchener SUNSHINE Award. |
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