Now in its 14th year, the programme awards exceptional lighting design and stage technology students an all expenses paid trip to the LDI tradeshow in Las Vegas, 22-24 November, to get a behind the scenes look at new technology and to network with industry professionals. The sponsorship recipients are also matched with industry luminaries, who offer individual support, advice and encouragement to the students as they launch their careers. The 2013 recipients of the LDI Student Sponsorship are:
Brandon J. Clark holds a bachelor of arts in theatre through the design/technical track from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Under the mentorship of Professor Victor En Yu Tan, he designed the lighting for a number of theatre, opera and dance productions.
Chris Collins is working toward a master of fine arts in lighting design and technical direction at the University of Alabama and has a bachelor of arts in drama with a technical theatre concentration from Georgia State University. He has worked as a technical service technician at the Gwinnett Civic Center & Arena, a lighting design instructor and technical director at Brenau University and as a sales representative for ETC dealer Barbizon Lighting.
Nick Diaz is currently in his final year of undergraduate education at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) in the lighting design programme. He has worked as a lighting designer at The Belasco Theater in Los Angeles and at Six Flags Great America and has been nationally recognised for his outstanding holiday lighting displays.
One of the international students in this year's group of sponsorship recipients is Ha-Young Jeong from Seoul, South Korea. Ha-Young is in her final year of undergraduate studies in the School of Musical Theatre at the Chungkang College of Cultural Industries and is expected to receive her bachelor's degree in 2014. She has extensive experience in lighting for musicals.
Jake Kvanbeck is a master of fine art candidate for lighting design at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. In 2011, he earned a bachelor of fine arts in lighting design at the Theatre School at DePaul University in Chicago.
Bart van den Heuvel is the second international LDI Student Sponsorship recipient, hailing from Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He is pursuing a bachelor of technical theatre arts with an emphasis on lighting design from the Amsterdam School of the Arts
Angelina Vyushkova, currently a graduate student at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, received a bachelor of fine arts with an emphasis on theatre design and production from Texas Christian University in 2012. Originally from Russia, she earned a diploma from Perm Art College #1 in 2004.
(Jim Evans)
