Celebrating more than 30 seasons of entertaining Central Florida communities, the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra recently invited donors to The Plaza Live for the Rhapsody 2024 gala. A dinner celebration and concert, the evening featured Emmy-winning violinist Robert McDuffie playing a solo accompaniment to Orlando’s orchestra.

Serving as a proud production partner for the gala, Full Sail provided students studying show production with opportunities to gain real-world experience working during the live concert event.

Nearly 20 students worked in roles in lighting, camera operation, stage direction, and more, running most operations that were happening during the show. “Pretty much it'll all be student-run from lighting and video. The only staff that'll still be kind of driving will be front of house, but even he'll let a student tag in,” shared Full Sail Production Manager Adam Shirley while students worked with Orlando Philharmonic to fine-tune the show during rehearsals.

“Students often get the opportunity to get hands-on experience in campus venues like Full Sail Live, but working outside of those spaces while still in school will help prepare them for gigs in their careers even more,” says Adam.

“You definitely get a little more hands-on [at The Plaza]. The [campus venues] are pretty shining diamonds; you go in there and everything's going to work all the time… Whereas if you were a touring band or a touring engineer that was out with people, that is very real-world. Every band that comes through here is just tapping into their systems. So that is about as real-world as we can make it.”

Giving students the chance to work with real clients also means an important focus on professionalism, something Adam feels his students aren’t lacking. “They understand it's going to be show blacks and hey, it's an orchestra on stage. Earlier, we had a guy tuning the harpsichord on stage and everybody kept it super quiet while this was going on. So they totally exceed my expectations when we come out and do gigs.”