It is a pleasure to present Laila Melkevoll as the new festival director at Vossa Jazz for next year's festival.
Melkevoll comes from the position as manager of the contemporary music orchestra BIT20 Ensemble. She has a long career in politics, but now calls herself a politically independent cultural activist with diverse audience development as one of her causes. Melkevoll will be the leader of a new program council that will work together to finalize next year's program at Vossa Jazz.
- I look forward to this job with great enthusiasm and respect for the impressive work Trude and all the others in Vossa Jazz have done all these years, says Melkevoll. With such a robust organisation and the national and international position that the festival has, it's a dream job for me!
Trude Storheim has been part of Vossa Jazz ever since she volunteered at the festival since she was 18 and is now taking a year's leave after an impressive 16 years in the director's chair to be the head of culture and sports in Voss municipality.
A new producer will also join the festival staff. Ingrid Øygard Steinkopf has extensive experience in jazz both as a performer, orchestra leader and as involved in various music festivals.
- I am coming back to Norway from a year in Berlin, and I am very happy to work for the festival where I have both performed and volunteered, says Steinkopf.
Both positions have been appointed until September 2024.
- I am very happy that we have got a new, competent team. Laila and Ingrid complement each other with their relevant and varied experiences, and we are well underway in transferring the years of expertise and organisation that the entire Vossa Jazz family has built up, says chairwoman Hilde Magnusson.
Photo: Laila Melkevoll by Alice Bratshaug
