Mentoring makes for beautiful music

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This article was published 10/05/2017 (3239 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

FOR a few hours every other Monday night since January, a group of 17 high school students meet at the Manitoba Music offices to explore careers in the music industry.

The youth mentorship program in music marketing and promotion is a free program run in tandem by ACI Manitoba and Manitoba Music, which offers students between the ages of 16 and 19 the opportunity to gain experience in putting together a music event with the helpful guidance of two mentors, Andrea Burgoyne and David Landreth.

Other mentors are also brought in — such as singer Begonia, Stephen Carroll of Manitoba Film and Music and Julien Desaulniers of Festival du Voyageur — for Q&A sessions about their careers in the industry.

“It’s fairly unique in that the breadth of it is pretty broad. It’s coined as a marketing and promotion youth mentorship, but because the project is curating and producing and marketing a show, we started at the very beginning bringing in mentors to talk about the overall music industry,” says Burgoyne, whose day job is manager of venue bookings and special projects for True North Sports & Entertainment.

“But then we talked about how to pick an artist, how to pick a venue, the difference between outdoor and indoor venues and shows, and what’s the lineup and the energy of the show, and then how do you get the word out.

“The overall purpose — yes, it is to do this project and learn some skills — but it’s to see that there are lots of jobs in the music industry and figure out if hopefully one of them or two of them or all of them pique your interest and then you say, ‘Wow I didn’t even know that job existed; I can do that for a living?’” Burgoyne says.

“It’s hands-on, and this other part where they get to listen and ask questions, so it’s kind of the best of both worlds.”

The project — dubbed 204 Unlocked — wraps up tonight with the showcase at the Park Theatre.

It’s an all-ages event that features artists Cole Moreau, ERA, Erika Fowler, G!nger and Olivia Lunny.

Victoria Turko, 17, Nicholas Vandale, 18, and Donald Plant, 17, are all taking part in this year’s mentorship program.

They each came into the experience with an expectation to learn, but they found out in just a few weeks just how beneficial the program would be.

“I’m a singer-songwriter and basically the program shows you how it’s possible to make it in the music industry. Although it can be hard, they’re just showing you the ins and outs on how to get started and where to go from there,” Turko says.

“And there’s snacks, and I always look forward to that,” she says.

“I was hoping to learn more about the different jobs in music that there are and from the second day we met, I learned so much about all the different places you can go in the music industry, not just being a musician or engineer or something,” Vandale adds.

“I also feel like I’ve gained a lot of friends,” Plant says, noting the students come from high schools all over the city.

“Initially what I wanted to gain from it, I got, and I think I got a lot more, as well.”

For more information about the mentorship program, which has been running since 2009, visit creativemanitoba.ca/youth.

erin.lebar@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @NireRabel