Alumni Story

Thinking back on her time at Catawba:

I had a great experience; I look back on it fondly. It’s such a growth time in your life and a jumping off point for becoming a fully-fledged adult. I learned a ton and it provided a foundation for where I am now.”

After her family moved to Asheville, NC from Minnesota, Catawba College first appeared on Emma’s radar of potential colleges. She loved music since she was a kid, and heard that Catawba had a good music program. She applied, was accepted, and quickly jumped into a double major in popular music and music business.

A large focus of her experience in the Music program at Catawba was on performing. “I was in Hoke Hall for my entire college experience,” Emma says, not entirely joking. Hoke is a primary venue for students who participate as performers in ADP, the Artist Development Program. She also performed with the Vernaculars, during a time when the group performed all of the music from a different classic album each year. She got to do Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon”; The Eagles’ “Hotel California”, Queen’s “Night at the Opera”, and Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours”. Of those, “Rumours” was her favorite – and netted her an internship in California. The producer of the original Fleetwood Mac album came to Catawba to hear the students perform their cover of the album and met them; Emma’s musical talent and her double major that included music business garnered her an offer of an internship. She took the opportunity, moved to California, and stayed.

Emma felt that the courses she took at Catawba in Music Business gave a base of the players in the business, how it all works, the foundation. Looking back at her time in the music program, she says, “I took it relatively seriously, it’s my personality, and it all paid off. Four years seemed like a long time, but it was a short time to figure out.” She appreciated all she learned in the music program including establishing a practice schedule and accountability.

“I enjoyed performing when I was doing it, but your career path always changes, it’s flexible, you have to stay open to it and slowly figure out what you enjoy.” She knew that music performance was not what she wanted to do as a career. She landed a job at Creative Artists Agency working in music crossover, scripted and unscripted projects for television and movies. She really enjoyed that but didn’t want to be a talent agent, which was a primary function of CAA.

She made the move to Live Nation Productions, on the production side of scripted and unscripted. She worked with the music group Foo Fighters as well as others. “When Covid hit, the main business at Live Nation was live events. We were furloughed, then laid off. For a while, I had a freelance gig with the Foo Fighters. I worked on a lot of music documentaries, but there aren’t many of those coming out in a year, they take a long time to do. And I wanted more unscripted opportunities,” she adds. She soon found them, landing a role as a Development Coordinator with ITV America. “They’re the creators of popular reality television shows including “Hell’s Kitchen”, “Queer Eye”, and “Real Housewives of New Jersey”,” Emma explains. Unscripted includes the world of reality television.

She is in a master’s program now, earning her MS in television and media management. She takes full advantage of life in LA, going with friends to concerts and events, trying great restaurants, and going to movies, often seeing the producers and actors from those movies in attendance as well. If that is not enough to make living in LA sound very appealing, she adds, “The weather’s great!”

Thinking back on her time at Catawba she says “I had a great experience; I look back on it fondly. It’s such a growth time in your life and a jumping off point for becoming a fully-fledged adult. I learned a ton and it provided a foundation for where I am now.”

She keeps in touch regularly with several friends from Catawba. They’re not in the same town but they catch up on a group chat. “We try to keep up,” Emma laughs, “I love some drama that’s not mine! I love to keep up with Catawba.” She pauses and thoughtfully adds, “There are threads and connections your whole life. And through Catawba.”