New Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Music Entrepreneurship

Presented in Collaboration with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Marin Alsop, Music Director

Press Contacts:
Thomas Moore
Director of Arts Management
UMBC
410-455-3370
tmoore@umbc.edu

Eileen Andrews
Vice President of Marketing & Communications
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
410-783-8020
eandrews@bsomusic.org

UMBC announces an intensive, one-year Post-Baccalaureate Certificate Program in Music Entrepreneurship, presented in collaboration with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) and its OrchKids program, an after-school music education and life-enrichment initiative designed to bring social change to Baltimore communities. The certificate program, designed to enhance students’ career opportunities through mastery of business and entrepreneurial skills, will be the first of its kind in the nation, pairing a research university with a major symphony orchestra.

Certificate students will receive intensive classes in innovative music education methods and musical advocacy, will intern in OrchKids, and will also become familiar with the inner workings of other BSO entrepreneurial programs such as the BSO “Rusty Musicians” and BSO Youth Orchestras. The year of study will culminate for each student with a project derived from internships in these initiatives or comparable endeavors.

The curriculum, through management and organizational leadership seminars, will provide skills necessary to:

• establish and build innovative music education programs, music ensembles, and community arts organizations;
• apply entrepreneurial concepts to new enterprises;
• create and execute a successful business plan;
• market new ventures;
• write successful grant proposals or effectively execute other funding strategies.

“This groundbreaking certificate program reflects UMBC’s deep commitment to infusing entrepreneurship throughout the disciplines, and is one of our first programs to emerge from a major grant from the Kauffman Foundation. We look forward to training a new generation of musicians in collaboration with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra,” said UMBC President Freeman A. Hrabowski, III.

Marin Alsop, Music Director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, said, “As programs like OrchKids flourish and expand in America, the need for qualified teachers and administrators will grow exponentially. This important program and partnership between UMBC and the BSO is a major step towards serving that need. I couldn’t be more delighted.”

UMBC Department of Music Chair E. Michael Richards added, “The new certificate program in music entrepreneurship, through its curriculum of study and participation in innovative pedagogy for underserved children, and leadership and management topics, will provide important skills for musicians of the 21st century as they establish their place in society.”

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s Entrepreneurial Programs
The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra will provide opportunities for students to work in three of its leading entrepreneurial programs:

• OrchKids, the BSO's after-school music education and life-enrichment initiative designed to bring social change to Baltimore communities;
• BSO “Rusty Musicians,” a program for adult amateur musicians;
• The BSO Youth Orchestras, designed for children in grades 5 through 12.

OrchKids is based on a groundbreaking and dramatically successful program in music education—El Sistema (“The System”)—which also carries equally important value as a social program. Begun in the mid 1970s in Venezuela, El Sistema has transformed the lives of more the one million young people (K-12), primarily from disadvantaged backgrounds. El Sistema’s approach to music education emphasizes intensive ensemble participation from the earliest stages, which promotes active group learning and peer teaching. El Sistema-inspired programs in the United States have started in the last several years in Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, Atlanta, and Baltimore (OrchKids). The Baltimore program is the largest of these initiatives in the U.S.

Faculty and Lecturers
The program faculty members are recognized experts in the management and leadership of innovative musical organizations, as well as innovative pedagogical methods that are part of these endeavors. The program faculty includes:

• Program Director Kristin Jurkscheit, Principal Horn at the Cabrillo Music Festival since 1992 and Affiliate Artist of Horn at UMBC
• Dan Trahey, Artistic Director of OrchKids
• Nick Skinner, OrchKids Manager
• Carol Bogash, Vice President for Education and Community Engagement, BSO
• Phil Snedecor, Co-Founder and Manager of the Washington Symphonic Brass

Distinguished lecturers (subject to change) will include:

• Marin Alsop, Music Director, BSO
• Maureen Dwyer, Executive Director, Sitar Arts Center, Washington, D.C.
• Tom Hall, Music Director, Baltimore Choral Arts Society
• James Harp, Baltimore Concert Opera
• Paul Meecham, President and CEO, BSO
• Eliot Pfanstiehl, CEO and Founder of Strathmore Hall Foundation, Inc.

Enrollment
Classes for the first year of this program will begin in late August, 2012, with enrollment capped at 12 students. Application to the program is open to students who have completed a bachelor’s degree with a major or minor in music, or who can display advanced skills/training as a musician.

The certificate program would appeal to:

• young professional musicians and recent graduates in music performance, conducting, education, and composition who seek to diversify and enhance their professional portfolios;
• music educators who wish to learn more about music for social change;
• arts advocates who wish to learn more about management in music.

Students interested in learning about the program may visit www.umbc.edu/music.

About UMBC
UMBC combines the emphasis on teaching found at the best liberal arts colleges with the innovation of a research university. Our 13,000 undergraduate and graduate students come from more than 150 countries and take full advantage of all the Baltimore and Washington, DC, area has to offer. UMBC students work alongside faculty who are leaders in their fields; think about the hard questions of society, science and creative expression; and then move beyond the classroom to make a difference. UMBC is a member of the University System of Maryland, and The Carnegie Foundation classifies it as a university with high research activity. Learn more at www.umbc.edu.

About the UMBC Department of Music
The Department of Music is actively engaged in cutting edge research and creative work within the structure of a liberal arts university. Through a research focus of its faculty on contemporary music, students and the community have access to, and an increased understanding of, the music of our time. In addition to the new program in music entrepreneurship, the department offers other courses of study in “Music for the Future” for graduate students, including the Certificate in American Contemporary Music, and courses leading to certification in Avid’s Pro-Tools system (for audio engineers and musicians).

Along this line, the Department also provides current advanced and innovative learning opportunities to undergraduate students through creative activities, research, and performance collaborations among students and faculty, and intensive faculty mentoring of students, which is at the core of our curriculum. In addition to standard courses in music, the UMBC music faculty recognizes the changing employment landscape and challenges for young musicians, so have developed curricular and non-curricular opportunities for undergraduate students to address transitioning to life as an independent artist, including an outreach/public service component. These opportunities, in many cases, require entrepreneurial solutions, and build skills that all successful professionals in the music field must hold. Part of this initiative has been supported by a 2008-9 Kauffman Innovation Grant.

About the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is internationally recognized as having achieved a preeminent place among the world's most important orchestras. Acclaimed for its uncompromising pursuit of artistic excellence, the Baltimore Symphony has attracted a devoted national and international following while maintaining deep bonds throughout Maryland through innovative education and community outreach initiatives.

The BSO made musical history in September 2007, when Maestra Marin Alsop led her inaugural concerts as the Orchestra's 12th music director, making her the first woman to head a major American orchestra. With her highly praised artistic vision, her dynamic musicianship and her commitment to accessibility in classical music, Maestra Alsop's directorship has ushered in a new era for the BSO and its audiences.