Being an Artist in Ann Arbor

Naman Gupta, 2020-2021 Co-President

Hi, I’m Naman Gupta. I’m one of two co-presidents for the 2020-2021 school year. In the second semester of my freshman year, I joined the MUSIC Matters Talent & Concert Committee. I served as treasurer and co-chair of the Talent & Concert Committee (T&C) over the next two years. A huge part of my college experience has revolved around music in many different capacities, ranging from my membership in music-focused extracurriculars to my professional involvement in music business to my own artist project—Namix.

I learned to play several instruments throughout elementary, middle, and high school, and I got into DJing and original music production near the tail end of high school. I released my first EP during my senior year, and soon after I started DJing private gigs in my hometown. Naturally, when I moved to Ann Arbor to start college, I was really eager to get my name out there and play at local music venues. I cold-emailed bars and nightclubs hoping to get some gigs, and fortunately, I was able to land a couple before the end of my first semester in Ann Arbor.

In addition to making my own music, I was interested in learning more about the Ann Arbor music scene, and I was quickly introduced to MUSIC Matters. At the time, MM was partnering on a promotional event at a local restaurant/bar. Knowing my background as an artist, the Local Talent team in T&C went out of their way to refer me as a DJ for that event. Over the next few years, the people I met through MM were instrumental in connecting me with gigs all over campus, both within and outside of the scope of MM’s own events. These gigs also gave me some really cool opportunities to get my original music out in front of more people. I had the opportunity to open for A$AP Ferg during SpringFest 2019 and for Lost Kings during one of MM’s shows at Necto Nightclub last year.

Around the time that I joined MUSIC Matters, I also joined a variety of other music-related clubs. Each club had their own niche, all of which were of interest to me. I joined Maize Collective because of its community of passionate, creative-minded individuals who want to be creative together. I also joined Empty Mug Records to learn more about the promotion of music in a record label setting. Over the next few years, I became involved in other music organizations on and off campus, such as Michigan Music Business Club, The CoOp, APG Presents, MEMCO, Necto Nightclub, and others to learn about all aspects of the music world. My involvement in these organizations have yielded some unique professional opportunities, and many of my music collaborations have stemmed from these organizations too.

Being involved in music in different ways has helped me gain a better understanding of both the business and artist side, and I’ve been fortunate to learn a lot and to have many opportunities arise from my involvement. The Ann Arbor, and more specifically UM, music scene is full of super talented people who are constantly looking for ways to push their creativity forward, and for me, music organizations on campus were critical in introducing me to the amazing community.

A Wild Wyoming Summer Amidst Pandemic Chaos

Katie Lorenz, 2020-2021 Head of Brand Partnerships

My name is Katie Lorenz, and I’m Head of Brand Partnerships for the 2020-2021 school year. This summer, I spent two months living and working in Jackson Hole, Wyoming - quite a different environment from my hometown just north of Chicago. Luckily, I had already begun planning my summer adventure when COVID-19 hit in March, so I quickly began looking forward to escaping the chaos that ensued around the country.

My time in Jackson was split between spending time hiking and working two jobs - an internship at the Jackson Hole Travel and Tourism Board and a part-time job at my favorite local bakery. I was the only intern for the organization, so I had the unique opportunity to work closely with the Executive Director as my mentor. My main project was to gather data and photos for the annual report while the rest of my work mostly revolved around marketing efforts to control the spread of COVID-19 within Jackson. The massive influx of short-term visitors looking to escape big cities perpetuated fear among locals that the virus would come with them, and in some cases, it did. 

In the middle of July, Teton County’s active cases peaked at a total of 81. In most other cities, this would be a victory, but for a small mountain town, this was a disaster. I listened, learned, and assisted as the marketing committee took actionable steps to clarify visitor expectations before they arrived. Around that time, an article was published in National Geographic to shed light on the events transpiring in the town of Jackson which helped make our case. The Jackson Hole Travel and Tourism Board continues to work towards striking a healthy balance between meeting the expectations of incoming visitors and locals.

This was not my first time in Jackson. I’ve been visiting my grandparents since they moved there part-time in 2002, and I attended ranch camp just outside of Jackson in Dubois, Wyoming for five summers. My camp experience truly changed my perspective and made me appreciate places like Jackson for its natural beauty and the inherent sense of freedom it promotes among its residents and visitors. Due to the extensive time I’ve spent in Jackson, this summer felt like the perfect opportunity for me to give back to the town that had given me so much. 

Throughout the summer I worked with many local businesses which gave me the opportunity to practice my strategy for my position in MUSIC Matters. I often thought about how MUSIC Matters might be most beneficial to the businesses I was working with - a process I will need to complete many times in the year ahead as I strategize partnerships with a variety of local and national brands. This experience prepared me for the year and even gave me a few ideas for potential corporate sponsors!

Many of the local businesses I worked with were those who I’d silently appreciated throughout the past eighteen years, but this was my opportunity to tell the people behind the scenes how deeply grateful I was for their contribution to the community. In fact, the bakery where I worked has been my family’s favorite since they opened in 2011, so I felt very lucky to be part of the crew and give my time back to the bakery I’d admired for so long! During my employment there this summer, I was lucky enough to get to know the owner and her husband very well. We eventually discovered we’d both gone to the same high school and worked our first jobs at restaurants right next to each other in our hometown - what a small world!

Overall, this summer was a restart button for me. A time to step back from the chaos of regular life and re-ground myself. Spending time in the mountains gives me the same feeling as listening to a good song. It fills my soul with an indescribable feeling, getting rid of any stress or negative emotions. In an effort to bring that feeling into the rest of my life, I know that remaining exposed to all things music through my work with MUSIC Matters will be a key player to supply that necessary energy for me this year, and I look forward to every minute of it!

Interning at a Festival During a Pandemic

Lucy Freeman, 2020-2021 Co-President

My name is Lucy Freeman and I’m the co-president of MUSIC Matters for the 2020-2021 year. Over the past four-and-a-half months I’ve had the pleasure of interning at the Ann Arbor Summer Festival, an event with a 36-year history of uniting the community around the arts. As the Operations Intern, my job description included organizing contracts and W-9s, creating and maintaining production schedules, communicating with festival vendors, and preparing plans to have a smooth running 21-day festival. That all changed, though, as the COVID-19 pandemic surged and A2SF pivoted their entire season. 

The day I was interviewed for my position, the University of Michigan cancelled classes for the rest of the semester. A week later, I was hired with the idea that we would be remote for at least the first 2-3 weeks as things shut down around the state, so I went home to west Michigan and began to build my schedule of Zoom calls and google docs. Of course, we had no idea how long these measures would be in place at the time, and soon we were redesigning our entire programming, cancelling the traditional in-person activities, and adding virtual versions or entirely new programs to the calendar. 

Though the challenges the pandemic brought to the festival’s programming were definitely not ideal, the interns were given amazing opportunities to pitch their ideas and work with more autonomy. My projects shifted into researching pandemic responses by organizations across the country, creating production needs lists and calendars for each of our 6+ programming initiatives, and creating geo-tagged audio-based experiences, one being a series showcasing artists that would have performed at the festival, and another a story that unfolds across locations in Ann Arbor. 

Despite my internship experience being slightly different than what I originally anticipated, I was able to see firsthand how arts organizations can navigate change while staying true to their mission. I think my experience in MUSIC Matters helped me to learn flexibility and collaboration, which were invaluable during my internship, and I’m excited to bring what I learned at A2SF back to our organization. 

Through the Eyes of a Hangout Music Festival Intern

 - Marty Hubbard

My name is Marty Hubbard and I'm a Senior out of Chelsea, MI majoring in Music and minoring in Entrepreneurship, Sales, and Performing Arts Management. My love of music and charity is what attracted me to MUSIC Matters which I joined sophomore year on the Talent & Concert Committee. In my Sophomore and Junior years I was a part of the A&R and Production teams, and will serve as the Head of Concert Operations and Advancement in the upcoming year. I'm very passionate about the ways music can better a community and feels fortunate to be a part of such an awesome team at MM. 

This summer I interned at Hangout Music Festival in Gulf Shores, Alabama. Since its inception the festival has grown from attracting 15,000 people per day in 2010 to 40,000 per day in 2017. In 2015, they partnered with AEG Goldenvoice and in 2016 was nominated for Major Festival of the year by Pollstar.

I, along with 25 other interns, spent 2 weeks leading up to and during the show working with various departments to help setup and run the event. During the festival I worked with the Sponsorship department to help manage the sponsor activations and serve as a liaison for the festival to companies including Corona, Monster, Malibu, Coke, Teva, and Harley among others. Although I worked mostly with the Sponsorship team, I also gained hands-on experience with the VIP, Site Operations, Artist Hospitality, and Media departments. 

Despite the experience and insights I gained, I found the most rewarding part to be the connections I made. There are some truly amazing people in the festival world and being surrounded by a team of others who are just as passionate about music as you are is an inspiring thing.

There is no doubt the experiences and relationships I've made in MM have a direct correlation to the opportunities I’ve had outside of UoM. For example, I coincidentally ran into one of the speakers for a MM curriculum during Lost Kings set, who coincidentally played at SpringFest 2018. 

This summer I will also intern with Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival and Live Nation Global Touring. I'm very thankful for everyone at MM and am extremely excited to hit next year running! (P.S. Rumor has it you can spot me as the festival fairy on Hangout's Day 3 Instagram story)