Feature photo courtesy of Daniel Nunnelee
Story by Kerstie Wolaver
Each semester, MTSU Music Business Professor Adam Caress teaches a class that gives students the opportunity to do the behind-the-scenes work of concert planning. Every aspect of this show is put together by the students in Caress’ Live Concert Planning class. From booking the artists and venue to marketing and accounting, the students do it all.
This semester’s show, called Indievelopment, will take place Tuesday, Dec. 3 in the Tucker Theatre, MTSU alum Daniel Nunnelee will headline, supported by his current tour opener Hana Eid and MTSU student opener, Sav.
Music business major Gavin Pine spent the semester on the artist booking and relations team. The first step was choosing the artist to headline the show, so the team had to immediately start brainstorming and pitching ideas to the class, Pine said.
“This fall has been a really great experience,” Pine said. “It might be my favorite class I’ve ever taken, really.”
Pine wants to pursue a career in artist booking, and said there isn’t another opportunity like this to gain risk-free experience.
Hannah Grace Parker will emcee the highly anticipated evening. Parker participated in the sponsorship and accounting team of the class, and said that her team was responsible for everything money related. The team came up with a pricing structure for sponsors and approached potential sponsors with brochures made by the marketing team.
The team spent much of their time going door-to-door collecting sponsors. In an effort to break even on their spending, they sometimes visited 50 businesses in a single day, Parker said.
Once their sponsorships were secure, the team focused on accounting. They allotted the largest amount of money to the marketing team, followed by artist payout.
“All approvals went through everyone in the class,” Parker said.
The group came to an agreement on every single decision leading up to the final show. In an effort to include the ideas of every team member, they made sure to keep open minds when receiving new suggestions, Parker said.
Junior Alex Mefford spent the semester on the production and venue relations team, where he coordinated with Tucker Theatre’s stage manager to make sure all the pieces were in place for the show. The group worked closely with the marketing team, creating lanyards and backstage passes for theater employees and each artist’s team.
“All of the moving parts have to come together to make the show successful,” Mefford said.
The group also partnered with Professor Chris Collins’ Advanced Sound Reinforcement class to run sound, set up the stage and coordinate equipment needed for the show.
They also worked together to create the guest list. Guests, including sponsors, will be seated in a special section of the theater decided by the team and stage manager.
Mefford, along with the rest of the production team, will stay after class on Dec. 2 to make sure everything is set up and ready to go for the concert.
After the last encore Wednesday night, the students can celebrate more than a final grade.
“I would say we’ve become a pretty tight knit group …” Pine said. “I haven’t had this kind of relationship with my peers in a class before because it really has been so hands on.”
Indievelopment will take place on Tuesday, Dec. 3 at 7 p.m. at MTSU’s Tucker Theatre. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Tickets for the show are $20, or $10 for MTSU students and staff with a discount code.
