News Article

Some 30 Music Industry and Performance (MIP) and Recording Arts (RA) students will travel to St. John’s on Friday, Oct. 12 for a portion of Music Newfoundland and Labrador’s (MusicNL) Sight of our Sound conference being held in the province’s capital.
 
“Our long partnership with MusicNL certainly strengthens our students’ knowledge of the industry,” Music Industry and Performance instructor, Wade Pinhorn says of the more than decade-long partnership.
 
“Their inclusion in this annual event serves to make many of our teaching concepts here concrete ideas, as they see professionals in action and listen to guest speakers talk about the same elements of the industry as the faculty does. It is an extremely valuable experience.”
 
Denis Parker, executive director of MusicNL, says the partnership with CNA is a very important component of their educational mandate.
 
“Following our initial input into the development of the Music Industry and Performance program at CNA, the partnership has proven to be a rich one,” he says. “It gives the students an opportunity to network directly with the provincial music industry and to attend important seminars and workshops. That provides excellent insight into the various aspects of the business.”
 
Cameron Huxter of Stephenville has experienced first-hand how valuable these networking opportunities are. He attended the MusicNL event last year and couldn’t say enough good things about the overall experience.
 
Cameron was a latecomer to the music industry –it wasn’t until he was in his final year of high school that he picked up a guitar. To his surprise, he discovered he had a knack for it. Exposure to the MusicNL event reaffirmed his choice to pursue music as a career.
 
“I can see myself doing this for the rest of my life,” Cameron says. “This training (with CNA) will most certainly help me be successful in it because of all of the business courses we do in the program, all of the music related courses and technical side of it – if you understand all of your courses there is just no way you can’t be successful at it.”
 
Attending the 2011 MusicNL conference was the first exposure he had with the organization.
 
“MusicNL was such a great experience. I think it’s great to see all of the successful or almost successful local acts from Newfoundland and seeing how they got to where they are. It’s just a great experience to watch talent spring up.”
 
He says he participated in a number of seminars at the event last year, but the most positive aspect was the networking opportunities.
 
“It was really great for getting connections in the music industry. You can’t just go downtown and make these connections, so being able to get in touch with someone who can market you in places like Britain before you even go to Britain is just incredible.”
 
There is one thing in particular he took away from MusicNL – and that was the importance on being able to market yourself in a professional way. Cameron is currently in the second year of the MIP program with plans to return for the RA program next year.
 
“You definitely can’t be in this industry if you don’t have your plan together. You can’t just go into it and hope that everyone else will hold you up. You have to make sure you have everything going for you.”
 
More information about the conference is available at www.musicnl.ca. You can find information about the college’s MIP and RA programs at www.cna.nl.ca.
 
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Media Contact:
 
Glenda McCarthy
Public Relations Assistant
College of the North Atlantic
709.643.6408
glenda.mccarthy@cna.nl.ca