Saint Lucia: Taiwan to be in spotlight in Jazz it Up

Castries, Saint Lucia: The internationally renowned Saint Lucia Jazz and Arts Festival is back this year from May 5th – 14th, and the lineup showcases talent from all over the world. Cultural Development Foundation, one of the major stakeholders of the festival, is adding even more diversity to this ultimate experience with Jazz it Up in collaboration with the Spotlight on Taiwan Project through the Embassy of Taiwan in Saint Lucia.

According to the update by Cultural Development Foundation, Jazz it Up is a project geared towards the enhancement and further development of skills and techniques of our Saint Lucian artists in jazz music through intercultural exchange initiatives.

Jazz it Up is the result of a partnership between the Cultural Development Foundation and Spotlight on Taiwan which will see world-renowned musician Chung Ching Chen from Taiwan hosting a two-week music workshop from May 2nd – May 12th with our Saint Lucian musicians. Our musicians will go through a series of training and development activities with Chen to further strengthen their product, learn new techniques and fuse these cultural exchanges to provide a more diverse and quality product in their performances.

Further, development foundation outlined that Chung Ching Chen is a professor at the National Taiwan University of Arts – Department of Chinese Music, a member of Spetro 7, Sihzuhong, and an outstanding plucked string player of an emerging generation of Taiwanese musicians. She will be performing alongside our musicians at Art Square, part of Art & The City at Derek Walcott Square. The best of her students will perform alongside Chung Ching Chen on the main stage, Saint Lucia Jazz and Arts Festival 2023, on May 14th.

Raymona Henry-Wynne, Executive Director of the Cultural Development Foundation, said that she is incredibly pleased with this partnership as it supports CDF’s main mission to nurture, promote cultural identity and facilitate the development of artistic expression and the creative industry as key drivers of social transformation, nation building, and economic growth. She is ecstatic about the added diversity in this year’s festival and looks forward to hearing our St. Lucian musicians perform and display their new techniques in Jazz It Up!