A goofy welcome (January 14, 2009)

From Julie Hill ‘09 and Cody Fiedler ‘10, Music Business majors…

From the arctic tundra of Peoria and Chicago, we bundled up and said goodbye as we headed out to sunny Southern California for the 2009 NAMM show. Despite a wintery Midwest sendoff, our whole group arrived at the John Wayne Airport in beautiful, warm Southern California around the same time, piled into rental vans, and headed to our hotel at Disneyland. Lucky for us, we were welcomed by Goofy as we waited in line to check into our rooms. Goofy even played Dr. Kelly’s trumpet for us; it was a very musical moment.

We grabbed a late lunch at Tortilla Joe’s in Downtown Disney with the group and headed back to the hotel for a pre-dinner sand volleyball game. After getting cleaned up, we hopped in the cars for a quick (1.5 hour!) drive to North Hollywood to meet with the versatile recording engineer/producer and composer Evan Beigel, who also is a 1995 Bradley Music Alumnus. Waiting to welcome us there were Dean Jeff Huberman, Kim Dunn, the CFA career adviser, and Janet and Ed Kaizer, and their daughter, Laraine.

Evan explained to us his path in the music industry after graduating from Bradley. He has lived in Illinois, California, and Brazil. He started at Bradley as a Music Performance major, but after some encouragement from Dr. Steve Heinemann chose to switch to Composition. This led him not only to composing, but also recording and producing. He runs his own independent recording studio in North Hollywood and showcased the studio that he built with the help of friends and family.

If there is one thing we learned from Evan, it is that nothing is impossible. If you have the determination, passion, and drive you can achieve all that you dream.

Tomorrow looks like it will be 80 degrees again and we will be heading out to Warner Bros. Studios to meet with Doug Frank, the President of Music Operations for Warner Bros. Pictures. Check out more tomorrow!