Our Trip Overview

From Dr. Todd Kelly…

The NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) Show in Anaheim is a wonderful opportunity for our students to rub elbows with the most important people in the music industry. The floor of the show is the size of six football fields.  Although restricted to only music industry professionals and closed to the general public, more than 80,000 people attend each year.  Bradley’s unique professional affiliation with NAMM allows our students to connect to the industry and develop career and internship opportunities.

This year, the students will also have the opportunity to tour Warner Bros. with Doug Frank, HON ‘06, the president of music operations for Warner Bros. Pictures. For a young person aspiring to a career in the music industry, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! We will also be attending Bradley’s College of Fine Arts Hollywood reception at the Skirball Center in Los Angeles, where we will be joined by Jeff Huberman, the Dean of the Slane College of Communications and Fine Arts, and many Bradley alums (more on this later!). The reception will feature a jazz performance by Carl Anderson, myself, and Ed, Janet, and Laraine Kaizer ‘98. We will also be visiting the recording studio of another Bradley alumnus, Evan Beigel ‘95, in North Hollywood.

Carl Anderson and I are excited about the advantages our students gain from this annual trip. Carl teaches the music business courses at Bradley. He is the general manager of Kidder Music Service in Peoria. I am an associate professor of music and have been at Bradley since 1998. I teach trumpet and direct the Jazz Ensembles, and I also enjoy serving as the adviser for the music business program. I’m looking forward to blogging about our 2009 trip. Stay tuned!

In the meantime, listen to our more popular Jazz Ensemble tracks:

Take the “A” Train:

Sing, Sing, Sing: