The 51 De­grees Lounge in Port-of-Spain was the set­ting for the lo­cal Red Bull Mu­sic Acad­e­my Ses­sion on March 23. The event was host­ed by Chris Lea­cock, alias DJ Jil­lion­aire. In­ter­na­tion­al mu­sic pro­duc­er Wal­shy Fire as well as lo­cal mu­si­cian Kees Dif­f­en­thaller of Kes the Band were guest speak­ers at the ses­sion. The Pre­ci­sion Pro­duc­tions duo of Kasey Phillips and Nicholai Green, who along with Al­ter­na­tive quar­tet vi­o­lin­ist An­dre Donowa spoke briefly about their par­tic­i­pa­tion in the Red Bull Bass Camp, which was held last year in Ja­maica. Wal­shy Fire has worked with the likes of Em­inem, Bruno Mars, John Leg­end, Es­telle, David Ban­ner and Ri­han­na among oth­ers. He shared his vast knowl­edge of the mu­sic in­dus­try with all those present, and shared sam­ples of his im­mense cat­a­logue of work. They in­clud­ed the Akon and Kar­di­nal Of­fi­cial track, Dan­ger­ous, Liquor Store Blues by Bruno Mars and Dami­an Mar­ley, which won him a Gram­my.

"Hard work and per­se­ver­ance are the keys to suc­cess plain and sim­ple. Events like the Red Bull Mu­sic Acad­e­my were vi­tal as they bring all gen­res of mu­sic to­geth­er and al­lowed up and com­ers to share space with some of the best in the game," he said. He then en­cour­aged those present to get in­volved. Kes Dif­f­en­thaller shared Wal­shy Fire's sen­ti­ments and en­cour­aged lo­cal mu­si­cians to ap­ply for the Red Bull Mu­sic Acad­e­my. "Ap­ply! That is one of the best things that you can, it can be a great op­por­tu­ni­ty for you young mu­si­cians to make con­nec­tions and take your mu­sic to the next lev­el," Kees urged. Fol­low­ing the lec­ture, he gave an un­plugged per­for­mance along­side his broth­er, Jon, that segued in­to the af­ter par­ty. Mu­sic mak­ers of all styles, method­olo­gies and lev­els of ex­pe­ri­ence are in­vit­ed to ap­ply to the Red Bull Mu­sic Acad­e­my 2012. The dead­line is April 2

How to ap­ply

All artistes, mu­si­cians, pro­duc­ers and DJs are in­vit­ed to ap­ply. Each year, 60 par­tic­i­pants are cho­sen to take part of the two-week tour full of lec­tures, pro­duc­tion work­shops and jam­ming ses­sions with some of the most recog­nised fig­ures in the mu­sic in­dus­try. Any­one can ap­ply on­line at www.red­bull­mu­si­ca­cad­e­my.com. All ex­pens­es are tak­en care of by the acad­e­my. All ap­pli­cants should turn in their com­plet­ed ap­pli­ca­tions in the Red Bull of­fice lo­cat­ed at AS Bry­dens TT Ltd, Ibis Av­enue, San Juan.