Between concerts, meet and greets and panels, this group of active students seeks to introduce and inform others as to what the country music industry can offer.
CMA EDU is an on-campus group that focuses on exploring the music industry, while also being able to hear from and network with people who are currently working in the industry.
“CMA EDU is the Country Music Association in Nashville’s outreach program,” said Abby Kanfer, a fourth-year studying business administration and CMA EDU’s current president. “They hook us up with learning experiences connected with anything — it could be a sound check with an artist coming through town, a radio station tour, a venue tour or a meeting with anyone from the industry through Skype calls and Twitter chats.”
The speakers that the group meets and hosts come from all over the country music industry, from performers and artists to those who handle the more technical aspects of a performance.
“We’ve had speakers come from all over the industry, from artists to production people and tours at Walnut Creek and PNC Arena to look behind the scenes of everything,” Kanfer said. “We’ve had events with people like Hunter Hayes and Brad Paisley, but it can pretty much be anything from getting a pair of concert tickets to giveaway on campus to raising awareness [for] the show and the artist, as well as country music in the area in general.”
CMA EDU is able to provide experiences for all aspects of the industry, whether it be from attending performances and meet and greets, or from getting started and connected to the industry itself.
“We want to try and bring in people who are interested in the artists coming through; we want to interest people with an engineering background who want to know more about the lighting, the sound and production, and we want anyone who’s interested in the music business,” said Morgan Brown, a third-year studying business administration who is the group’s current vice president of special events.
The group’s most recent event was held last Friday, where they sat down to have an eat and greet with Jon Langston, a country music artist who performed at the City Limits Saloon later that evening. During this event, the group also had the opportunity to attend the sound check for the group prior to the show.
The group also holds events for the members of campus, such as their first event of the fall semester.
“In one of the events we held at the start of last semester, we did a huge event with Hunter Hayes and all the Greek sororities on campus,” Kanfer said. “It was set up as a competition between them all where whichever one [sorority] bought the most tickets to his show would have Hunter come to their house to do a private performance and a meet and greet, he took a bunch of pictures with them and did a question and answer session. It was pretty cool, and was a good way to get the word about CMA EDU out there to other people.”
Through these events, members are able to gain experiences that are able to heighten their appreciation for the work that goes into the industry, particularly at performances.
“One of the events that I enjoyed the most was the event where Scott Scovill came,” Brown said. “I was able to learn about so many parts of the music industry that I had heard about but that I had no background in, so now I feel like whenever I go to a show I notice the lighting more, I notice the videos playing in the background more. It’s a really eye-opening experience.”
Going forward, growth is CMA EDU’s main goal.
“I’d like to see more people be aware of our group and what we do,” Brown said. “There’s so many people out there who don’t know we exist that we could be assets to.”
The group’s next meeting will be held on Feb. 26 at 8 p.m. in Talley 3210. Additionally, they can be contacted either through their Facebook group CMA EDU at NC State or through email at
