The Entrepreneurship Center for Music

What do college students need from the world? Opportunities. Therefore, it is no coincidence that the Entrepreneurship Center for Music (ECM) teaches students how to make them. With so many talented musicians in the world competing for existing work, it makes sense for musicians to think independently and create their own jobs.

The ECM is a unique program that encourages young musicians to think like entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs are optimistic, opportunity obsessed, and equipped with the skills to deal with an ever-changing market — such as the entertainment industry. Performers need audiences, teachers need students, instrument manufactures need customers. Everyone in-between can benefit from the skills and mindset of an entrepreneur as well.

The ECM uses classes, workshops, guest lectures, individual counseling, and a comprehensive website to teach the concepts and skills that transform a musician into an arts entrepreneur. Tailoring traditional business skills to make them relevant to a developing musicians is the Center’s specialty. Since most musicians want to spend the majority of their time creating their art, ECM offerings are designed to efficiently meet the needs and schedules of students. A music student’s primary focus is to learn how to make music; the Center teaches what the student can do with it.

The ECM features an excellent group of teachers, administrators, and entrepreneurs delivering the message. Kevin Woelfel, the Center Director, has been a professional trumpet player, as well as a composer, arranger and teacher. With three startup companies to his credit, he knows first-hand the benefits that entrepreneurship brings to a professional musician. Frank Moyes, an entrepreneur and instructor of courses at both the ECM and the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship at the Leeds School of Business, specializes in teaching planning using feasibility studies and business plans. Dr. Patricia Sandler teaches courses for the ECM and councils students on their career goals. Patricia has lived all over the world and shares both her interests in urban development and her view of the world as an ethnomusicologist with her students.

We encourage you to visit the ECM website at www.ec4music.com and learn more about this unique program. It takes more than a vision and practice to build a career in today’s professional world. Business knowledge alone is not enough either. However, blending the steadfast determination of a student musician with the practical skills of an entrepreneur results in the best of both worlds: a musician who can make a living doing what they love.