Dec 5, 2011
CMC Students Enjoy Longest Tour Yet
posted under NEWS STORY
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| Pictured: Clayton Thornton (North Greenville University) |
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| Pictured: John King, Nate Netti, Kevin Embleton and Dave Judy (Malone University) |
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Featuring concerts in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee, students of the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities’ BestSemester Contemporary Music Center took their show on the road November 15-20. Students, faculty, and gear were packed inside a bus and a box truck for the capstone semester project that included six tour dates at CCCU colleges and a seventh show on November 21 back at the CMC’s own concert venue, The Hardscuffle, in Nashville. The seven concerts make up the longest CMC tour by students since the semester-long study program relocated to Nashville in 2010 from Martha’s Vineyard.
Students from all three CMC tracks—artist, business, and technical—put their growing skills to use to pull off the tour, handling all of the planning, organizing, and promotion as well as performing on stage and running production equipment for each concert. During their week of travel, students kept a true-to-life tour schedule, arriving at each new venue between noon and 2 p.m. to set up for and promote the evening’s show. Then they loaded up to do it all again at the next day’s venue.
For Caitie Merz, a business track student and a senior media communication and public relations double major at Indiana Wesleyan University in Marion, Ind., the highlight of the tour was watching an audience get into the show and seeing an artist have a great set where they could give it their all. “If I can help make that moment possible, then I’m happy with the show,” she said.
The CMC tour included concerts at Mount Vernon Nazarene University in Mount Vernon, Ohio; Waynesburg University in Waynesburg, Pa.; Messiah College in Grantham, Pa.; Geneva College in Beaver Falls, Pa.; Malone University in Canton, Ohio; and Bryan College in Dayton, Tenn. Each concert except one featured a headlining band from the host college.
“The highlight of the tour had to be our night at Messiah,” said John King, an artist track student and a senior studying business administration who graduates this semester from Malone. “The stage was small, but it created an intimate environment that a lot of students connected with. The interaction with the audience was amazing, and all of the artists brought their all in a diverse, high-energy set.”
Technical track student Clayton Thornton, a senior broadcast media major at North Greenville University in Tigerville, S.C., served as the tour’s lighting director. “Lighting is my passion and I had the best time organizing and programming our lighting rig for the tour,” he said. “As is often the case with lighting, electricity was a recurring issue with many of the schools we played at. I had to be creative about finding solutions so the show did not appear compromised.”
Merz, King, and Thornton all say they discovered important lessons about working with others to pull off such a tour, lessons that are valuable preparation for future music industry jobs. “This tour helped me get an idea of what the road actually feels like mentally, emotionally, etc.,” said King. “It's one of the hardest existences to perpetuate in a healthy way, in all honesty. So you have to choose the people you tour with wisely; our tour was a success in that mutual support, teamwork and encouragement abounded. I wouldn't trade a single CMC student for anyone else; we were a machine!”
Merz admits that it took a few days, though, to become a well-oiled machine. “The first couple of days proved to be the biggest challenge,” she said. “We hadn't figured out exactly how to operate as a team during load-in and tear-down, so it took a few shows on the road to figure all that out. Everyone wants to help, and finding the balance of delegation and prep during show day took some getting used to.” But she notes that since she hopes to work in tour or artist management, the tour was excellent preparation for future endeavors. “From this point I can learn from my mistakes and have a better idea of what that part of the music business looks like.”
During the tour, Thornton noticed the importance of good working relationships for a successful show. “The highlight of being a tech was the ability to take part in the camaraderie between the other techs,” he said. “We developed a friendship over the semester that helped the tour go smoothly.” Thornton will be putting this tour experience to immediate use. He has been hired as the lighting director for the Christmas Pageant Tour featuring Family Force 5 with Hawk Nelson and Manafest.
“I think the most important things I could take away from the CMC tour, and the semester in general, is being able to troubleshoot and understanding signal flow,” he noted. “They are foundational elements to any tech job, and troubleshooting is key in any of life's dilemmas.”
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The Council for Christian Colleges & Universities offers 12 off-campus study programs, collectively branded BestSemester®, which expand learning opportunities for students from CCCU campuses and are designated as culture-shaping or culture-crossing programs. Culture-shaping BestSemester programs are: American Studies Program (Washington, D.C.); Contemporary Music Center (Nashville); Los Angeles Film Studies Center (Los Angeles); and Washington Journalism Center (Washington, D.C.). Culture-crossing BestSemester programs are: Australia Studies Centre; China Studies Program; India Studies Program; Latin American Studies Program; Middle East Studies Program; Programmes in Oxford; and Uganda Studies Program. Visit www.bestsemester.com for program details.
The Council for Christian Colleges & Universities is a higher education association of 183 intentionally Christ-centered institutions around the world. The 113 member campuses in North America are all fully-accredited, comprehensive colleges and universities with curricula rooted in the arts and sciences. In addition, 70 affiliate campuses from 25 countries are part of the CCCU. The Council’s mission is to advance the cause of Christ-centered higher education and to help its institutions transform lives by faithfully relating scholarship and service to biblical truth. Visit www.cccu.org.
