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Pictured, from left, are WIU students Rebecca Wilcox; Tiana Thakur; William Hicks; Kole Shuda; and Lukas Keil.
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Music Students and Professor Receive Scholarships and Grant for travel to National Music Products Show as Part of Generation Next Program

November 15, 2018

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MACOMB, IL -- In January, nearly 90,000 attendees will descend upon the Anaheim, CA, Convention Center, as well as roughly 2,500 college students and faculty, to take part in the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) Show. This year, 12 students from Western Illinois University will attend with Courtney Blankenship, director of the University's Music Business Program.

Five Western students have been awarded the prestigious President's Innovation Award from NAMM/College Music Society in the form of $600 for travel expenses to attend the show. They are: Rebecca Wilcox of Macon, MO; Tiana Thakur of Castlerock, CO; William Hicks of Clinton, IA; Kole Shuda of Rock Island, IL; and Lukas Keil of Des Plaines, IL. Award recipients are music business majors and Thakur is a jazz studies major.

Blankenship also recently received a $1,000 grant from the Music and Entertainment Industry Educators Association (MEIEA) to help offset travel expenses for the group attending this year.

She has been taking students to the show for the last 10 years, and it has been a highlight for WIU music students for the last 25 years. Blankenship was appointed by The College Music Society to serve as the co-chair of the program committee for Generation Next events.

Blankenship said the experience is "life-changing" for students as they see firsthand the impact of the music products industry, music education and the health benefits of music-making in general.

"Having access to industry professionals builds students' network of individuals they can call upon for future internship and employment positions, an essential aspect of the 21st century marketplace," she said.

As a component of the annual NAMM Show, Generation Next is an educational program for college, conservatory and university music students and faculty. For music students and academic faculty, Generation Next programming includes:

• The NAMM Foundation's Grand Rally for Music Education, featuring Q & A with Grammy-winning conductor/composer Eric Whitacre

• Access to the 2019 NAMM show floor, with more than 1,900 music products exhibitors and 6,000 global product brands

• GenNext/College Music Society educational sessions presented by experts across music and music business industries

• Access to the Audio Engineering Society's (AES) Symposium Events

Other events for students to attend include concerts on The Grand Plaza, educational sessions at the Idea Center, TEC Tracks and the All-industry Drum Circle, as well as tours aboard the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus, a state-of-the-art mobile recording studio.

For more information about WIU's Music Business program, visit wiu.edu/cofac/musicbusiness.

Posted By: University Communications (U-Communications@wiu.edu)
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