At Cheltenham Festivals talent development unpins a lot of the work we do. Our Festivals and Projects ensure everyone can experience the benefits of cultural engagement and explore or advance careers in science and the arts. A perfect example of this is Gina Baker. Below, we've documented her journey from Musicate participant to bringing communities together through music.

2017-18

Gina was a participant on the second year of Musicate, a training programme for early career musicians. She stood out for the professionalism and quality that she brought to everything. 

Jazz Festival Concert For Schools 2018 

Following on from her training, Gina co-planned the Jazz Festival Concert for Schools with two other Musicats, and played the leading role on stage. 

Music Festival Concert For Schools 2018 

Just months after the Jazz Concert for Schools, Gina helped devise the concept the Music Concert For Schools, and supported the event through to performance. 

2019 

A packed year for Gina. Not only did she devise and lead workshops in creative music-making in primary schools, but she also performed the soprano role in Cheltenham Festivals' community opera Across the Sky alongside professional opera singers. She also co-led the chorus rehearsals leading up to the opera alongside opera composer Michael Betteridge.

Sept 2019 – Dec 2021 

Gina took on the leadership of the Hester’s Way-based community choir, Local Vocals, that sprung from the opera chorus. Even through the pandemic she continued to run weekly rehearsals online.  Directing choirs in community settings became her forte, and her career took off during this time through supporting and leading choirs in a range of health and wellbeing settings, and in prisons. Her role at the charity Beating Time (whose purpose is to help people survive their prison sentence and thrive on release) grew, and she became one of their Musical Directors. 

Digital Concert 2021

This was a huge undertaking during the COVID pandemic. 58 musicians including the Gloucestershire Youth Chamber Orchestra, plus Musicats past and present, took part with Gina as vocalist and YolanDa Brown as presenter. Six months of dedicated hard work and creativity, two demanding days of filming, and four days of editing resulted in a unique concert that was broadcast to a reported 88,000 viewers.