Last week, almost a hundred students from across the District attended the Philadelphia Music Alliance (PMA) Fall Career Summit – the Process. Held twice a year, PMA’s career summit provides high school music students with hands-on learning experiences to augment their classroom work, while also learning about the broad scope of music industry careers from professionals in the Philadelphia region, including the creative and business sides of the industry, with a career path focus.

“Bringing music students together with music professionals offers a great opportunity for them to get a sense of the breadth of careers that exist in our industry. With the spotlight shining so brightly on performers, those careers that make things happen from the studio to the tour are often unseen,” said Mark Schulz, Managing Director at Philadelphia Music Alliance. “And by focusing on Philadelphia’s music professionals, hopefully the students will be able to more easily see themselves being successful right here in this great music city!”

The event kicked off with students receiving donated instruments from Musicopia’s Gift of Music Program. The Music Alliance is a multi-year sponsor of the program.

“We are incredibly grateful to the Philadelphia Music Alliance for their thoughtful vision in developing and facilitating a music industry career summit for our School District of Philadelphia high school students, and to the University of the Arts for hosting this wonderful experience on their campus,” said Frank Machos, Executive Director for the School District of Philadelphia’s Office of the Arts & Creative Learning. “Students spent the day hearing from and engaging with leaders from across Philadelphia’s vast music industry, and learned about a variety of career opportunities they can pursue. We are also grateful to Musciopia for the wonderful instruments they provided to students through their Gift of Music program. The students were incredibly excited to leave the event with their new instruments.”

Student recipients included:

• Ethan Pierce, High School for the Creative and Performing Arts (CAPA)
• Madison Staton, Franklin Learning Center
• Jaylen Murphy, Franklin Learning Center
• Tajhay Gilmore, Philadelphia High School for Girls
• Charles James, Franklin Learning Center
• Mia Cox, Philadelphia High School for Girls
• Lavayah Mack, Murrell Dobbins High School

Musicopia is a Philadelphia-based non-profit organization with a mission to provide equitable access to music education and enrichment, encouraging self-confidence, global awareness, dedication and joy in Pre-K to 12th grade students and their communities. Over the past decade, Musicopia’s Gift of Music Program has collected and repaired more than 6,000 donated musical instruments.

Beyond the donation, this year’s event included a class on the creative process, the Management Process, featuring speakers Reynold ‘Rennie’ Jaffe- president and founder of Another Management Company and others to be added, in a discussion about how the Manager works with an Artist to build a career, the Recording Process and the Making Money Process.