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University students perform key roles on and off stage at Cheltenham Jazz Festival

More than 50 University of Gloucestershire students enhanced their learning across a wide range of key activities as they helped to deliver a successful Cheltenham Jazz Festival 2023, which featured some of the biggest names in music.

Students from a variety of degree programmes at the University, including Sound and Music Production, Music Business, Digital Media and Event Management, benefited from working alongside fully trained professionals to gain new industry skills and experiences.

The students’ roles and responsibilities at the Festival – for which the University was a sponsor – included producing audio and video content; running venues and events; providing technical support for various stages; managing film shoots; and producing content for the Festival’s social media channels.

Ezra Collective performing at the 2023 Cheltenham Jazz Festival (credit: Still Moving Media for Cheltenham Festivals)

Two students from the University, Felicity Mitchell and Lucy Parish, who are both studying for a degree in Popular Music, were selected to perform at the star-studded event through a collaborative initiative launched by the University and Cheltenham Festivals, the charity that organises Cheltenham Jazz Festival each year.

This year’s performers included two-time Grammy Award winner Gregory Porter, acclaimed American vocalist Lizz Wright, winner of 2022 Scottish Album of the Year, Fergus McCreadie, and creative Norwegian guitarist, Stian Westerhus.

Damian Lewis on stage at the 2023 Cheltenham Jazz Festival (credit: Still Moving Media for Cheltenham Festivals)

Andrew Lansley, Innovation Manager at Cheltenham Festivals and Senior Lecturer in Music Business within the University’s School of Creative Industries, said: “All the students did an outstanding job across such an ambitious and wide-ranging number of student experiences at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival this year.

“I managed to check in with each team at least once across the weekend, and I’ve had some really good feedback from our staff teams, suppliers and partner venues who were working with students.

“I’m delighted to say that several students have already expressed a keen interest in working at Cheltenham Science Festival 2023, in June, so they’ll be able to enjoy further course-aligned experiences to enhance their career prospects.”

Top image: Some of the University students in the TV crew who helped to deliver the 2023 Cheltenham Jazz Festival