NYU Nashville gives music college students with hands-on expertise

College students taking the Nashville: Manufacturing and A&R within the Music Business course within the music enterprise program at NYU’s Steinhardt College of Tradition, Schooling, and Human Improvement have the chance to shadow world-renowned producers at East Iris Studios in Tennessee through the January time period.

As part of the course, college students watch rising artists document an album and take part within the artists and repertoire course of. Due to this system’s partnership with Common Music Group, college students obtain visitor lectures from the business’s high executives and go to iconic places in Nashville.

This system was created by Susan Dodes in 2019, a music enterprise professor at NYU who has additionally labored as an A&R director for over 30 years. With this course, she needed to make sure college students have been concerned within the recording course of.

“We’re not sitting in a classroom and taking notes all day,” Dodes mentioned. “These college students are partaking with the precise holistic manufacturing of actual recordings — from assessing the expertise and the songs that ought to be recorded, right through the mastering course of.”

This January, 18 college students have been chosen to take part in this system. They have been divided into two teams: one noticed the indie-rock band Juke of June, whereas the opposite noticed a country-pop singer Julie Williams.

Josie Azuriz, a junior in Steinhardt’s music enterprise program, was a part of the group observing Williams and described this system as “tremendous hands-on.”

“We bought to observe [Williams] undergo the pre-production course of, which is developing with the important thing of the track and ensuring all of the lyrics and the chords are right,” Azuriz mentioned.

Whereas the category is barely value two credit, college students spend almost all the workday watching the artistic course of.

College students additionally get to expertise life as A&R representatives — expertise scouts for document labels and venture facilitators for beforehand signed expertise. Dhwani Gautam, one other junior learning music enterprise, bought to see how concerned A&R representatives are in an artist’s recording course of.

“The very first thing that involves thoughts is at all times, ‘Oh, I’m going to be on the enterprise aspect. So I’m simply going to deal with agreements and stuff,’ however it’s not like that,” Gautam mentioned. “You should be current within the studio to see how musicians and the manufacturing work, and you want to give your stage of experience and stage of recommendation to musicians in any method you’ll be able to.”

In addition to musical artists, college students have been additionally capable of shadow Grammy-Award-winning engineers and producers David Leonard and Steve Fishell.

“He was actually nice and hands-on and beloved to reply our questions,” mentioned Azuriz, who labored with Fishell throughout this system. “We have now a gaggle chat and he nonetheless talks to us in that.”

One other essential college member was Kelly King, who’s the studio supervisor at East Iris Studio. Andi Aguilar, a senior learning Media, Tradition, and Communications, counseled King for her encouragement.

“Kelly is my idol,” Aguilar mentioned. “She has fully made the atmosphere higher for ladies. She actually confirmed how a lady would take into consideration operating a studio and it made an enormous distinction.”

This system helped college students with networking in an business that closely depends on connections. Though college students had a really optimistic expertise in Nashville, some wished they might have skilled each sections of this system.

“[My group] largely labored with the [sound] engineer, whereas the opposite group had a producer and a singer-songwriter; so it was vastly totally different,” Joseph Roy, a senior within the music enterprise program, mentioned. “I want there was extra of an interplay between each side as a result of we have been largely trapped in our one room and I needed to have a little bit bit extra of every thing.”

Although this system is aggressive, the appliance course of is somewhat easy, consisting of a transcript and a private essay on why this program will profit the scholar’s profession. Purposes for this system at the moment are open and due on Oct. 19.

“We’re searching for college students who can reveal why this specific program will make a distinction of their NYU training and educational trajectory, and in addition for his or her higher profession objectives,” Dodes, this system’s creator, mentioned.

Contact Liz Lindain at [email protected].