Dr Kristina Kelman

Vermilion Records:
Vermilion Records, a student-run record label based at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia, is celebrating its sixth year of operation, demonstrating its longevity and sustainability in providing students with real-world learning opportunities. The label showcases the collaborative efforts of students from various disciplines, including music production, film, entertainment, design, visual art, drama, and business. These students work together to support and promote artists from the Brisbane area, releasing their music on major streaming platforms. In 2023, the record label continued to network with local venues and expanded into two new venues, including running its first full day music festival at Ric's Backyard in Brisbane's Fortitude Valley, and held several smaller acoustic events at the End Bar in West End. The students booked, curated and event-managed approximately 11 Vermilion events in 2023, and booked their artists for several more external support slots and external events. The team produced two more issues of Vermilion magazine, 5 feature music video clips and over 16 live-in studio music videos. The content creators worked tirelessly on another new merchandise line, and a range of artwork for the artists' single releases, live events and other short form content for social media kept the team busy. The sustained growth and expansion of Vermilion Records over the past six years highlights its ability to adapt and thrive in the ever-changing music industry, while consistently offering students valuable hands-on experience in various aspects of music production, promotion, and entrepreneurship.

Vermilion High:
Music education in Australian high schools has traditionally followed a classroom-based approach, often focusing on theoretical and historical concepts, with limited practical applications in industry-facing contexts. This approach may not adequately prepare students for the rapidly evolving music industry or provide them with real-world experiences. Recognising this gap, the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) has developed an innovative program called Vermilion High, now in its fourth year. This program aims to bridge the gap between high school and university music education by offering talented high school students the opportunity to work with QUT students across various disciplines, including music production, creative industries, visual arts, film, and technical production, to produce an album of original music, with a strategic release campaign, and additional promotional assets such as an electronic press kit, publicity material, music videos and other shortform media content.

Indie 100 India:
This project builds on the success of a QUT-funded project called the Indie 100 (2009-2015) – recording and promotion of independent artists in a week-long publicly visible event. For both QUT and Indian students, the project serves as an intensive ‘classroom’ for students and brings them in contact with the intensity of a commercial production environment. Over a two-week period, students curate four live shows featuring Australia-India musical collaborations. They coordinate and capture the Indie100 recording event, working in assistant recording-producer roles and as session musicians. Music business students are responsible for the promotion and digital release of the album. The project is founded on the belief that the future of music education in the H.E Sector relies on a system of experiential facilitations that lead to the development of sustainable communities of practice among teachers, students, local musicians and industry. The collaboration exposes musicians to new practices, new audiences and new knowledge, and the high intensity environment gives students a real-world experience that will hopefully make them work-ready, entrepreneurial, resilient, interculturally aware, with  a greater understanding of the global music industries.

The project has sustained and transformed as a study tour attracting New Colombo Plan funding in 2018, 2019, 2023 and 2024 ($133,600), allowing 52 students to immerse themselves in an intensive, collaborative, and intercultural music production environment. (Total funding to date inclusive of 2024 for my project work in India is $213, 600).