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Paul Charles Augustin is a festival organiser, curator, historian.^[1] He is the festival director at the Penang Island Jazz Festival and the director of Penang House of Music

Early Life and Education

Born 31st December 1955 in Penang, Paul attended La Salle School Penang from 1962-1967 and attended Saint Xavier's Institution, Penang from 1975-1976.

Career

Paul was a performing musician for more than 15 years prior to venturing into the event management industry in 1993. His music career began whilst still in secondary school and as a performer, he has done gigs as a soloist, duet, trio and as a bassist in bands all over Malaysia in addition to stints in Canberra, Australia in the mid-1980s. He has written and recorded compositions and produced three albums. In January 1995, Paul joined Mahir Events (Managers of Shah Alam Stadium) as an assistant event manager and subsequently held a number of posts in various management capacities until his eventual departure as the group events manager in December 1996 to set up events and venue management company The Capricorn Connection.

Projects under The Capricorn Connection

With the setting up of The Capricorn Connection, Paul was involved in many different types of events ranging from sports to conventions to carnivals and concerts. His involvement in Festivals began in 2001 with the International Culture and Arts Festival for people with disabilities and in 2002, The Capricorn Connection was contracted to manage and coordinate Carl’s Sunrise Jazz Festival followed by Philips International Jazz Festival and International Kuching Jazz Festival in 2003.

In 1996, Paul conceptualized the idea of a festival on an island and eight years later in 2004 together with business partner, Ms Chin Choo Yuen, started the Penang Island Jazz Festival ^[2]. He is a founding member of the Asian Jazz Festival Organisation and has acted as advisor for a number of events and festivals including JSPA Johor Arts Festival, KK Jazz Festival and KL Music Fest. In his capacity of festival director, Paul, has been invited to participate as a panelist / participant for music industry meetings in a number of countries which include Singapore, Korea, Thailand, China, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Norway, England, Wales, Finland, Spain, Luxembourg and has also been on the artist selection jury for the prestigious jazzahead! overseas night in Bremen, Germany.

His network connections in the music festival industry has enabled him to create opportunities for a number of local Malaysian musicians to perform in international festivals in South Africa, Finland, South Korea, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore. Together with James Lochhead, Paul is the co-principal researcher and co-curator of The Penang Musical Heritage Project that has produced two exhibitions on the history of popular music in Penang (2010 and 2013), co-authored the book Just For The Love Of It; Popular Music in Penang 1930s-1960s with James Lochhead in 2015 and founded the Penang House of Music in 2016.

Awards and Recognition

• Invited to be a keynote speaker for the International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives Conference 2021 on Closing the gap for a new generation of sound and audiovisual archives ^[3]
• Recipient of the Gamechanger award at the 17th BOH Cameronian Arts Awards in 2020 ^[4]
• Recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award by The Hai-O Arts & Culture Grants 2024

References