Music Career Treks

The Running Start Office hosts trips for students to explore the music career industry of major cities like Detroit, Chicago, and New York City every other academic year. During these trips, students have a chance to meet and network with major arts organizations and their employees, engage with alumni who have created a career in that area, and explore the landscape of careers available in our field.

Read more about our past trips below! Upcoming career trek opportunities will be announced via the Running Start email newsletter, Bathroom Bulletin, and @MSURunningStart Instagram page.

Learn about careers in opera (both performance and educational and administrative) and education (beyond public school classroom), and working in a large city as a vocalist!

Our most recent trek was to Chicago in Spring 2024 where we met with program directors and administrators from Chicago Opera Theatre, Chicago Lyric Opera, Uniting Voices, and the Merit School of Music.

The music career trek takes place every other academic year and is a great opportunity for undergraduate vocalists to learn about careers in the arts that await them after graduating. Previous treks include two- and three-day tours of performing organizations, educational programs, and arts venues while connecting with local MSU alumni in similar fields. In recent treks we’ve visited and toured the Chicago Lyric Opera, one of the biggest opera companies in the United States, and meet a panel of teaching artists as well as administrators to learn about the wide variety of roles available and how performers and educators can work with and for opera companies. This same trek also brought MSU music students to meet with Uniting Voices Chicago, which puts together performance and learning opportunities that embrace the racial and economic diversity of Chicago, making a high-caliber musical education available to any singer who wants it. Treks typically incorporate workshops and meetings with leaders in arts organizations such as general directors, development teams, directors of operations in various capacities, as well as interacting with educators who are actively working in social justice in the arts school programs. Music career treks are a terrific way for MSU music students to meet with almuni and connect with a plethora of arts opportunities after graduating.

Student testimonials from our 2024 Chicago music career trek:

“This trip has genuinely been one of the biggest “aha!” moments of my life […] in my realization that I want to get involved with teaching music in the Chicago area […] I now have a variety of connections with teachers and administrators who I can speak to to make that dream a reality.

“The diversity in meeting stage performers and directors, organizational group admins, elementary choir teachers, and front/back of house staff who also had jobs as soloists and other jobs showed me how realistic it was to apply transferable skills. to careers in and out of the arts.”

“I am not a well travelled person due to financial circumstances. Trips such as these are so important because it allows students to see what is out there in bigger cities, and network with people in a welcoming and safe environment.”

“The trip really represented how us MSU students can craft our own career in music however we choose.”