Last year I had the honor of being part of the Leadership Music Class of 2016. I can honestly say that the days spent with my 47 classmates – “The Best Class Ever” – were among the most rewarding in my music industry career. Each year, Leadership Music gives about 50 diverse music industry professionals that same opportunity.
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Leadership Music has begun accepting applications from established music industry leaders for the Class of 2018, and will accept them on-line throughout the month of February.
The eight-month, Nashville-based program begins in October and is designed to expose participants to every phase of the music industry and build channels of communication between established leaders, while exploring the challenges facing the music industry. Participants first attend an orientation and alumni welcome reception in September, then Opening Retreat in October, followed by six all-day sessions once a month, ending in May with graduation at Closing Retreat. One-time tuition for the program is $1,000.
For the second year, three program days will be held on Tuesday and three on Friday. According to Debbie Schwartz Linn, Executive Director of the 28-year-old organization numbering more than 1,100 alumni, “There have been proven benefits to moving three program days to Tuesday, but the board decided we needed at least two years to determine if this move would be long-term. We will have program days on Tuesday in December, January and March and on Friday in November, February and April. The board will re-evaluate at the end of the 2018 program year.”
Application forms, program dates, policies and FAQ’s are available at www. leadershipmusic.org/apply/,
According to Linn, “We continue to experience an increase in applications to the Leadership Music program in record numbers, and we are gratified at the level of interest. So many factors enter selecting the next, as we say in Leadership Music, ‘best class ever.’ Ideally, that means a class comprised of passionate, balanced and diversified professionals, who are, individually and collectively, the best and brightest leaders in their field and represent all segments of the music industry across the country. We are fond of saying at Leadership Music, the class you are in is the class you were meant to be in”
One industry veteran who recently participated in the Program summed up their experience: “It was beyond my expectations and was/is a peak experience in my career. Your formula works.” And another class member said, “What I found myself saying a few times to non-alums in the days since, it was everything I believed, hoped and wanted it to be…and more.”
Applications must be submitted on-line no later than midnight, February 28, 2017.