One of the principals of the 2009 Panorama Champions Hell?s Gate, Stafford Joseph is calling for more local involvement in the art form.

?What is happening here, I?m not saying persons can?t come here and want to play, but when you import players you?re telling me you don?t see the need to train,? Joseph said. ?We have responsibility to the youths, and I?m hoping that the other bands realise it?s not all about winning but it?s to develop the art form, to grow our bands and to expand it.?

Joseph is encouraging pan musicians to pass on their skills to the youth to keep the legacy alive.

?We have to do that — (train) voluntarily, to look at the youths in the communities and to mould them and bring them up in that way,? he said. ?We have to do that, otherwise we are going to lose the interest in our communities.?

Nineteen-year-old Khan Cordice became the youngest person ever to arrange a winning Panorama piece Thursday night, when Hell?s Gate took the top prize and Joseph said that this was made possible by their support of local talent.

?We always look inwardly to persons to be arrangers. We never had any overseas builder ? whatever it is, it is within the band, and we go up there to win yes, but not at any cost,? Joseph said.

Cordice arranged King Swallow?s tune, ?Party in Space? for the 64-year-old band described as the oldest surviving steel orchestra in the world.

Meanwhile, Panorama is the first Carnival Development Committee show thus far to have surpassed attendance numbers from last year?s show.