Welcome to the real world / With Artists Now, MU students bring education out of the classroom
Millersville students' artist management group is producing a live radio show for jazz saxophonist John Farnsworth.
Students in Millersville University professor Mark Sheridan-Rabideau's music business class have created an organization called Artists Now.
By Catherine S. Molitoris
Updated Feb 04, 2008 06:00
The opportunity for real-life learning.
Students in Millersville University professor Mark Sheridan-Rabideau’s Music Business class have created an organization called “Artists Now.”
Their goal is to bring music and the arts to the community.
“The students have taken on real projects, encountered real problems, created innovative solutions and are meeting their goal of bringing culturally diverse arts programs to our region,” he says.
Artists Now highlights Sheridan-Rabideau’s goal of teaching “social entrepreneurialism,” where success is measured by impact to society.
“Like entrepreneurs, (these students) have found opportunities where the extraordinary resides,” he says.
Some students have coordinated a partnership between a student-formed artists-management group and jazz saxophonist John Farnsworth. They are producing a live radio show that will air to more than 450,000 households on Smooth Jazz 92.7.
“We put together a three live show set that is being recorded right now and will air (at 10 p.m.) Saturday nights in February,” says Lovick Holbrook, Artists Now’s director of promotional materials.
Holbrook is creating a press kit for Farnsworth and marketing him to universities via postcards and phone calls.
“We are recording the John Farnsworth Quintet live at SMOKE jazz club in New York City,” says junior Steve Kunkle, the radio show’s head engineer and producer.
Farnsworth recently came to Millersville to work with Kunkle.
“(Farnsworth) said he wanted to help the students re-create the exact sound he has in mind for the recording,” Sheridan-Rabideau says. “You cannot replicate this kind of education for any dollar amount.”
Other students are creating concert programming for MU and surrounding areas.
“We are working to bring the arts to the community and develop an education outreach program that will bring world-renowned artists to inner-city schools,” says junior Cori Barger, coordinator of the outreach events.
Through Artists Now, music education majors taught McCaskey High School students about renowned pianist Andre Watts. The McCaskey students then came to MU to hear Watts perform.
Barger and others are bringing internationally known trumpeter Paul Merkelo to MU for a March 8 concert.
“We are also bringing (Merkelo’s) show on the road,” Barger says. Merkelo will perform at four outreach events, including ones at Edward Hand Middle School and McCaskey.
Barger will never forget the experience of bringing music to children who might not otherwise be exposed to it.
“The music education students got to develop lesson plans they could put to use in real life, and then they got to experience the looks on the kids’ faces as they were seeing things for the first time,” he says. “With music outreach programs, we can change the lives of people in our community.”
In April, Artists Now students will bring a week’s worth of Celtic events to campus, including musicians from Strathsclyde University, Glasgow, Scotland, says event coordinator Jeff Nagy.
He will produce MU’s first Highland Games April 22, featuring a parade, performances by the Ulster Scottish Pipe Band and a highland athletics competition for fraternities and sororities.
Some other events planned will be outreaches to local schools and a retirement community, he says. A group also will be sent to New York City and Highland Park, N.J., for performances.
“Our goal is to serve the community and bring exciting educational and cultural experiences closer to home,” Nagy says.
MU sophomore Heather Diane Smith, student coordinator and director of information for Artists Now, says the project has allowed her to use skills from writing press releases to balancing a budget, all while impacting the community.
“I am 20 years old and already have gained so much real-world experience,” she says. “Artists Now has helped me bring what I’ve learned at Millersville University beyond the classroom.”
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