Loyola University student Damian Ch to Perform at Expedia Cultural Exchange Pavilion at Jazz Fest

NEW ORLEANS – When Damian Ch performs at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival presented by Shell, it will be the first time in recent memory that a Loyola University student will have his own set at the legendary music festival.

He will play the festival’s second weekend, on May 2 from 11:30 to 11:55 a.m., in the Expedia Cultural Exchange Pavilion, which this year is celebrating the music and culture of Mexico. A Mexico native – born Pedro Damian Sandoval Chable in the state of Veracruz – Damian will graduate from Loyola in December with a bachelor’s degree in Hip Hop and R&B

Damian, who plays his own brand of Latin Hip Hop, will perform five songs at Jazz Fest, including two cuts from his new EP – “SEA (Sigo Extrañandote Aquí)” and “No Hablo Inglés,” a collaboration with Loyola student Corey Sanders Jr., who goes by the stage name flow mvnny.

In addition, Damian will share the stage with fellow Loyola bandmates Jordan Bush, Mike Tenreiro, Skyler Phillips, Mervin Redmond and Mateo “Teo” Emad.

“I am so proud of Damian Ch,” said Jonathan McHugh, Hilton-Baldridge

Eminent Scholar/Chair in Music Industry Studies at Loyola. “It’s a true testament to our Loyola students that they know they have to get out there in the community, and people will notice their talent. It’s a big deal for a student outside of our ensembles to get his own set at Jazz Fest. The fact that Damian wants to share this moment with his bandmates is what it’s all about.”

Students with Loyola’s Jazz Ensemble play the opening set in the WWOZ Jazz Tent on the first day of Jazz Fest each year, from 11:15 a.m. to noon. This is a regular spot for the students studying Jazz at Loyola, as opposed to an individual student being asked to play his or her own set.

Damian, who moved to the United States when he was 15, was participating in a panel about Latin music at NOLA MusiCon last fall when a talent buyer for Jazz Fest saw him and asked if he could send her some of his music. A few months later, she reached back out and asked him to perform at the festival.

After graduating from Grace King High School in Metairie, where he found his passion for music during a piano class his junior year, Damian enrolled at the University of New Orleans with the goal of becoming a doctor. But by 2021, he needed to take a gap year to earn money for tuition.

That same year, Damian was performing at an event organized by Puentes New Orleans, an organization that supports Latin youth, where an employee with the College of Music and Media at Loyola was present and heard his set. She suggested he come to Loyola to meet with Rainey Antoine and Lovell “U-P” Cooper, who run the school’s Hip Hop and R&B program. In the fall of 2022, Damian enrolled at Loyola.

Damian credits Loyola with giving him the chance to meet people in the music industry and work alongside professional musicians, who share their insights on everything from recording music to building a business.

“I was in the right place at the right time,” he said. “Loyola gave me a space to hone my craft and shape my team in a professional world.”