We have lost a patriot and a staunch pan supporter. Mark Loquan valued Pan perhaps more than his successful corporate career. In 2024, the government wisely honored his energy and steelpan innovation contributions with the Order of the Republic of Trinidad & Tobago. His passing this month leaves us all deeply pained.
We spoke to him in 2023 and found his passion for our culture boundless; his ambitions for Pan visionary. Mark composed music for Panorama and artists like Denyse Plummer and Destra, and often collaborated with the late Ken “Professor” Philmore.
Winning bands performed more than 30 of his compositions in the Pan is Beautiful competition, in the National Panorama, and even in the schools’ Junior Panorama.
With Mia Gormandy-Benjamin and Akua Leith, he created PanNotation, an online portal that offers steelpan music scores and educational materials for composers, arrangers, and educators, and funds steelpan scholarships. Mark also produced Gender Issues in Steelpan along with Maria Nunes. “It was always a concern of his that women get their fair recognition,” Nunes told PanTalk.
“He was deeply interested in everything to do with pan, especially in its research and development,” she said. “Mark was a very thoughtful man who had a lot of grace. We will feel his loss for a long time.”
In 2004, Mark was co-founder of the Music Literacy Trust, which scores and preserves great pan arrangements and gives music scholarships. He produced a dual CD set of recordings of the late Dr. Jit Samaroo’s arrangements, one with Jit’s music and a data CD for arrangers and music teachers. “The idea was to use the data CD in the education system,” said Mark. “It was an intervention to preserve the music of our icons.”
He did something similar with Dr. Ray Holman. Partnering with the UWI Steel Ensemble, Mark recorded six of Holman’s pieces. He said that took a year because Ray was very particular. “He knows where every note is played on every instrument. His orchestration is very precise,” he explained.
Mark also worked with other arrangers and composers, including Edwin and Junior Pouchet, Bobby Mohammed, Ken Philmore and Bertie Marshall. “I just wanted to make sure these great pieces are not lost,” he said.
At his funeral mass, his son paid a moving tribute. “He uplifted others with his quiet strength,” said Evan. “He did not just see potential, he made space for it and gave people the tools to grow.”
The late musicologist Pat Bishop, who spoke at the launch of the Trust called Mark: “This extraordinary fellow! What he has done is to take the music and put it in the public arena in a way in which few before him have done.”
It is fitting that music was a huge part of his service. Akinola Sennon, Duvone Stewart, Drs. Len “Boogsie” Sharpe and Ray Holman, Etienne Charles, Teri Lyons, Destra and the National Steel Symphony Orchestra all paid tribute with performances, some playing music he wrote.
Veteran journalist Andy Johnson, who has interviewed Mark about his work, summed him up best: “He was a most pleasant warrior for a higher sense of nationalism for us,” said Johnson.
Mark is survived by his wife, Pat, and Evan. He leaves a rich legacy that will inspire future generations.