The Los Angeles Chapter and GRAMMY Foundation hosted National GRAMMY Career Day on Feb. 4 and provided high school students with an opportunity to meet and learn from a group of music artists and professionals. While the event is tailored specifically toward the students, artists such as Ne-Yo, Jesse McCartney, or Eric Bénet — all of whom made the trek to meet with 1,200 students from the Los Angeles Unified School District and as far away as Las Vegas' Chaparral High School and Las Vegas Academy — found that the five-hour educational program is as special for them as it is for the students.
Students felt the excitement and snapped pictures at the day's opening panel, which was moderated by The Recording Academy's West Regional Director Lizzy Moore and featured Academy Chair of the Board Jimmy Jam, National Trustee and EMI Music Publishing President West Coast Creative/Head of Urban Music Big Jon Platt, and recording artists Keri Hilson, McCartney, and Ne-Yo.
This year's GRAMMY Career Day also featured 11 different workshops covering a range of topics from vocals to women in music and songwriting. The workshops featured an array of participants including legendary Motown songwriter Lamont Dozier, jazz musician Jeff Lorber, producer Harvey Mason Jr., "American Idol" and GRAMMY Awards musical director Rickey Minor, and engineer Al Schmitt — all of whom serve on the Chapter Board.
Other Chapter Governors and National Trustees who lent their time and expertise to the students included Universal Music Publishing Executive VP of Creative Affairs and Chapter President Tom Sturges, who moderated the "Songwriting" workshop; Chapter Vice President Mike Knobloch and music supervisors Maureen Crowe, Becky Mancuso-Winding, and Steven Vincent, who were featured in the "Film/TV Music" workshop; Concord Records Executive VP/Head of A&R John Burk in the "Jazz" workshop; artist managers Brian Avnet and Tina Davis, Interscope/Geffen/A&M Attorney Tanya Greig, and Cuervo Entertainment CEO Javier Willis in the "Artist Management" workshop; Universal Music Publishing VP of Creative Services Donna Caseine in the "Music Publishing" workshop; producer Mike Clink in the "Rock" workshop; artist Sy Smith in "Vocal" workshop; musician Greg Phillinganes in the "Music Direction" workshop; Warner Bros. Senior VP of Business Affairs Lisa Margolis in the "Women In Music" workshop; and engineers Mark Cross and Andrew Scheps in the "Engineering" workshop, which was sponsored by RSPE Audio Solutions and allowed participating students an opportunity to enter a free raffle to win a Pro Tools rig.
To close out the day, the students and panelists got a chance to experience another of the GRAMMY Foundation's programs firsthand with a showcase of the GRAMMY Jazz Ensembles.