House Of Blues Goes To School

Called “Bringin’ Down The House,” the foundation program will foster young musicians through a truncated career arc, recruiting them, teaching them, and providing them performances at House of Blues venues nationwide.

The middle part is where the music industry gets involved. Participants include Live Nation’s Tiffany Emery and Dwayne LeBlanc, United Talent Agency’s Nikki Wheeler, and House of Blues Entertainment talent buyer Paul McGuigan.

Bruce Sugar – producer and Ringo Starr’s manager – is also on board.

“We have a pretty incredible roster of people, everyone from ASCAP to the president of urban music at Universal,” Music Forward Executive Director Marjorie Gilberg told Pollstar. “We have instructors from Musicians Institute and the people from Maker Studios – the YouTube channel that specializes in music videos. The kids can participate through Skype and be involved in the panels from remote locations around the country.”

After only 10 days of recruiting, the foundation received 2,000 applications for participation. The Live Nation talent buyers will narrow down the submissions to six groups in each market, with 400 kids ultimately participating. The finalists will then go through the online program before performing.

“There are three sessions with the panelists, each one themed on a different aspect of the business – music as creation and representation, as a business, and music marketing,” Gilberg said. “The last session is live production, and the kids come to the venue, meet with the production people at the venue, go through stage plots and sound checks, learn about the things they need to know for a live show. They then have a two-week window to promote the show. We’re giving them resources to do that.”

The House of Blues showcases will be free for friends and family. Past participants have gone on to the Van’s Warped Tour while others have opened for bands in the local markets. “We just added this learning component this year to take it to another level,” Gilberg said. Industry execs interested in participating in future editions and those who want to check out the program can visit Hobmusicforward.org.