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CMS Spotlight

Muiz Collado Jessica May 2023 - Jessica Muñiz-Collado

Member of the CMS Council on Music Industry and 2024 National Conference Program Committee, Jessica Muñiz-Collado currently serves as Assistant Professor of Music Business at the University of North Texas. In addition to her teaching role, Jessica is also an active composer, producer, consultant, and performer, where her activities range from composing/producing music for MundoFOX and Univision to presenting at the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM)/GenNext Conference in Anaheim, CA (which is where I ran into her most recently!). I asked Jessica a few questions about the many directions she’s taken with her work so far and her engagement with CMS, and I hope you enjoy learning more about Jessica’s multi-faceted career.

Q: How did you begin your involvement with CMS, and what led you to join the Council on Music Industry?

I am grateful to have learned about CMS during my first year teaching higher-ed, which was in 2015. My faculty mentor at the time, Dr. Michael Caldwell recommended it to me. It was one of the best recommendations I received. As for joining the Council on Music Industry, it is important for students to understand that there are multiple music career options available. I truly believe that a sustainable music career is possible, so I was thrilled when the current chair, Courtney Blankenship presented me with the opportunity to join. I couldn’t say no.

In Conversation with President Mark Rabideau

Dear Recent Music Graduate

This month, we will celebrate the culmination of our graduates’ accomplishments as they cross the stage, loved ones close by, and collect degrees conferred by academic dignitaries. Like so many, I love the pageantry and promise. In June 2017, I wrote an open letter to music graduates everywhere and wanted to share that again with our society with the hopes that it might provide meaning for your students.

Congratulations to all those graduating.

Dear Recent Music Graduate,

When you applied to school, you were probably told that you should only go into music if you couldn’t imagine doing anything else. That was good advice.

You have spent the past few years, as my friend David Taylor puts it, “embracing the joy of the struggle.” You did not wait for inspiration, but pursued it on your own: striving for mastery where perfection does not exist; learning to play something difficult so well as to make it sound easy; teaching so tirelessly that your students no longer need you – all signs of your grit and tenacity.

To You and Your Students’ Good Health: Q & A Column 2023

Compliments of the CMS Committee on Musicians’ Health

The Musicians’ Health Committee, comprised of medical professionals and music faculty, all strong advocates for musicians’ health, is happy to bring you a Q & A column for this month's CMS Newsletter. If you like this idea, please send us your musicians’ health-related questions which we will direct to our committee members, or other professionals with whom we have contact, to be answered in future newsletters. Linda Cockey and, Heather Malyuk Committee Co-Chairs.

April 2023

Q: “What should performing arts clinicians and instructors know about Black or Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC / IPOC) [1] performers and some of the challenges they face?”

Answered by Dr. Sims (pronouns: he/him).

Dr. Sims (pronouns: he/him) is the director of the Chicago Institute for Voice Care at the UIC Medical Center in Chicago. He is a board-certified laryngologist who chose a career in professional voice care as an extension of his two passions, medicine and singing. A graduate of the Yale University School of Medicine, H. Steven Sims, MD completed a clinical fellowship at the Vanderbilt Voice Center and is a current appointee of the National Institute on Deafness and Communication Disorders Advisory Council with the National Institutes of Health. He is also an accomplished musician who plays trombone, bassoon, and piano. While an undergraduate at Yale University he was a choir member and is an experienced vocalist as well.

A: The awareness of differences suggests that we already understand the crux of the issue. Whether we like it, agree with it, or not, we have all grown up in a system that views the societal construct of race as an important determinant. People have developed identities around race that are very real, even though the concept has no genetic basis. It is important to recognize that even though performers are a part of the culture of performing arts, they also bring their racial and ethnic identities to their respective fields. Bias and discrimination are also witnessed in these fields, and we need to recognize this influence and face the fact that the same systems that plague people of color most visibly also affect everyone, regardless of race.