We are in between auditions at The Fugard Theater in Cape Town, South Africa.  As I look around the concert hall, I can see that the team at the Festival and ESP Afrika are serious professionals.  The Cape Town International Jazz Festival is a world class event and one that we at Berklee are excited to be supporting.

The event has been sold out for a few weeks.  The 2-day event will play host to 30K guests.  The concert events will all be kicked off on Wednesday evening with a free public concert which will also see about 18K attendees.  A quick glance at the list of acclaimed local and world renown artists helps to bring all of this into focus.

I am here with chair of music business and management/trumpeter Don Gorder, professor of woodwinds Jim Odgren and assistant director of admissions Gojko Damjanic.  This week are supporting the Training and Development program.  This includes checking out an impressive student jazz festival held on Sunday evening at The Fugard Theater, conducting a few days of auditions and interviews for candidates from across the African continent seeking to study at Berklee and giving a few days of lectures and master classes on a range of musical topics.

Throughout the week, I will be making posts on our work and the event.  To start things off, I thought it would be cool to give you a glimpse of the natural beauty of the Cape area and what we saw coming in from the airport as we headed into town.

Heading into Cape Town

Table Mountain