The pan music of today owes a great deal to Ray Holman, master composer and arranger of the instrument, for his innovations in its musical style and growth. As a young boy in Port of Spain, Trinidad in the early days of pan, Ray was eventually drawn to the instrument by way of the Invaders Steel Band, one of Trinidad’s first steel drum orchestras, and by age 15 was already arranging and writing music for that group. In the early 1970’s, Ray pioneered a new trend in pan by composing his own calypso for the annual Panorama festival in Trinidad with his band, Starlift, and changed the course of this annual Carnival season event forever. He was awarded Trinidad and Tobago’s National Humming Bird Silver Medal of Merit for his outstanding contribution to Pan in 1988. Noted musicologist, Pat Bishop, has remarked,”His music speaks with an individual voice. There is always integrity in his work.”