News

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- After nine years in Marthas Vineyard, BestSemesters Contemporary Music Center (CMC) has relocated to Nashville, Tenn. On Saturday CMC staff welcomed 31 students to the programs state-of-the-art music building for its inaugural semester in Nashville.

The CMC is an interdisciplinary off-campus study program that offers young musicians, engineers and aspiring music executives an artists community within which to hone their talents, refine their dreams and test the waters of a career in popular music. The CMC seeks to prepare students academically and creatively for potential careers in music, developing music professionals with a Christ-centered vision for music content, production and delivery.

CMC Director Warren Pettit says the decision to relocate was easy based on cumulative factors. Desiring to maintain the contemporary in Contemporary Music Center, CMC decision-makers wanted to reflect changes in the music industry over the past nine years, which meant moving from an artists retreat model to an immersion model located in one of the countrys major music centers. While the CMC has always hosted myriad music industry professionals, access to these professionals will increase exponentially with the new Nashville location.

Pettit notes that one of the strengths of the programs location on Marthas Vineyard was the isolation. Students were very productive there, recording 250 songs per semester. We wont try to replicate that isolation. Were now more interested in immersion, in connecting with the music community, he says.

During their first week in Nashville, CMC students are spending three days visiting key members of the music industry: a recording studio, a songwriter, a publicist, an artist, a performing arts organization and an artist manager. This type of compressed tour was impossible before the relocation.

Another big change for the CMC is that it will no longer have to vacate its facilities each summer. With classes only eight months of the year, the new facilitys recording studio, writing rooms, rehearsal space, performance space, and cyclorama room for filming music videos can now be made available to alumni and others during the summer.

Pettit says they hope the CMCs new performance space, located in an appropriately architecturally creative building on Brentwoods Church Street, will become a destination venue in Nashvilles music scene.

The CMC now has over 600 alumni, more than 100 of which live in Nashville. Being located where alumni are concentrated will allow CMC to be a much better resource for them.

Another major change for students is that housing has been upgraded from camp-like facilities on Marthas Vineyard to apartment living. The relocation also means the CMC costs students $1000 less than before, though they must now supply more of their own meals.

This semesters students applied to the CMC expecting to be in Marthas Vineyard this fall. When they were notified of the new location and offered a full refund if they didnt want to come to Nashville, no students backed out.

Lisa Walters, a junior from Northwestern College (IA) on the CMCs artist track, says shes more excited about the program now that its in Nashville because of the increased access to resources and opportunities. Music is my biggest passion, and this is such a great opportunity to explore whether thats somewhere I want to go in the future.

Zach Kolkman, a Trinity International University (IL) senior also on the CMCs artist track, had mixed emotions because he had heard that Marthas Vineyard was a great artist colony experience. Yet, he says coming to Nashville seems more rooted in the music scene, so hes excited about that.

The 12 semester- or summer-long student programs offered by the CCCU are categorized as either culture-shaping programs or culture-crossing programs. Culture-shaping programs are: American Studies Program (Washington, D.C.); Contemporary Music Center (Nashville, Tenn.); Los Angeles Film Studies Center (L.A., Calif.); and Washington Journalism Center (Washington, D.C.). Included in the culture-crossing programs are: Australia Studies Centre; China Studies Program; Latin American Studies Program; Middle East Studies Program; Programmes in Oxford; Russian Studies Program; and Uganda Studies Program. All programs undergo regular site visit evaluations by the Student Academic Programs Commission (SAPC).

The Council for Christian Colleges & Universities is a higher education association of 185 intentionally Christ-centered institutions around the world. There are now 110 member campuses in North America and all are fully-accredited, comprehensive colleges and universities with curricula rooted in the arts and sciences. In addition, 75 affiliate campuses from 24 countries are part of the CCCU. The Councils mission is to advance the cause of Christ-centered higher education and to help its institutions transform lives by faithfully relating scholarship and service to biblical truth.