My Summer Internship Abroad in London

Byline Madison Starr, University of California, Los Angeles

Hi, my name is Madison Starr, and I am a rising sophomore at University of California,Los Angeles (UCLA).

I am majoring in Music History and Industry, and I will declare Political Science as my second major this fall. Currently, I am interning with TALENTBANQ in London.TALENTBANQ is a live music management company that specializes in promoting independent, grassroots artists. So far, I have had a fantastic experience with TALENTBANQ, and this internship has helped solidify my aspiration of pursuing a career in the music industry. Through shadowing various employees within TALENTBANQ, I have gained a well-rounded and comprehensive understanding of what it takes to run a successful music business.

Recently, I was able to work at the final Cornbury Music Festival, a popular music festival that takes place in Oxfordshire. This year, the festival’s main stage featured headliningartists Bryan Adams, James Blunt, and Ronan Keating, but for the Caffe Nero Stage, TALENTBANQ was responsible for programming unsigned grassroots artists. During thefestival weekend, I helped manage the backstage area, the green room, and the artists. I got tohelp set up and tear down the stage between each set and shadowed the sound engineer during each performance. For the last performance at the Caffe Nero Stage, the sound engineer let metake the wheel and engineer the second half of the concert myself. It is absolutely unbelievablethat I got to have such a direct hands-on experience.

Without such an opportunity, I would nothave realized that I enjoyed this aspect of the music industry. This learning experience is unlike any other, and I am so unbelievably grateful to have been placed with TALENTBANQ.