Students Learn the Business of Music

New Degree Takes Advantage of Savannah’s Thriving Music Scene

Beginning fall 2021, the first cohort of students in the Bachelor of Arts in Music with a concentration in music industry will begin their studies at the Georgia Southern Armstrong Campus in Savannah. The program emphasizes both music technology and music management skills, with flexibility for students who are more interested in one area than the other.

“I had always wanted us to have a distinctive program because every school offers music education and music performance,” said Stephen Primatic, DMA, one of the organizers of the new program. “You can go to any school almost anywhere and get those degrees. But I always thought we should have had something a bit more modern.”

Steven Harper, Ph.D., chair of the Fred and Dinah Gretsch School of Music, said the idea had been simmering for quite a while.

“We would get lots of inquiries about a music tech or music business degree,” said Harper. “We would have to say, ‘No. Afraid not.’ There were a lot of people we weren’t serving and we weren’t therefore having an impact on the region the way we’re supposed to, educationally or economically.”

With the arrival of President Kyle Marrero, however, there was an opportunity to retool the Armstrong Campus with a different degree for a different audience — designed specifically for the Savannah market and its thriving music scene.

The accredited program takes advantage of the skills in the current music faculty on the Armstrong Campus, where professors have extensive experience in theory, composition, technology and more. Due to the generous Gretsch naming gift to the music program, a search is also underway for a Distinguished Scholar in Guitar and Music Industry who will serve as the new head of the program.

“The 21st century musician has to be an entrepreneur and has to be adaptable,” said Harper. “We want them to have technology skills, business skills and performing skills so that wherever they want to go, they can talk meaningfully to people in those other areas.”

Georgia Southern has a broad range of minors from which students in the new music degree can choose, making the degree even more valuable.

Also on the table are strategic relationships with Savannah area music businesses.

“Benedetto Guitars and Randy Wood Guitars are here,” said Primatic. “Jody Jazz Mouthpieces is here. There’s the Savannah Philharmonic and there is the Hilton Head Orchestra, Savannah Jazz Festival, Coastal Jazz, Savannah Music Festival and of course Gretsch. We’ll be bringing people in to talk with our students and we’ll be setting up internships with them as well.”

So far, recruitment is going better than expected. The new students will pursue a music degree that’s flexible enough to focus on what interests them, but prepares them for the current state of the music industry.

Harper is very excited about the new degree.

“Now, with the prestige of the Gretsch name, we are building something unique to the state and very attractive to students. The idea is to see who we have and what they’re interested in. We’ll give them an experience that they’ll find meaningful and that they can build into successful careers.” — Liz Walker