NAMM 2016: NAMM Young Professionals

We were finally able to attend a NAMM Young Professionals event!

NAMMYP is a subgroup of NAMM consisting of members under the age of 40. Robin R. Walenta spoke this year and told her story of how she started West Music. Upon discovering she had breast cancer, her view of life changed and she realized her time here was limited. She encouraged everyone to live their life to their fullest potential, doing what you truly enjoy.

After she spoke, the forum was open for questions and a donation was taken for the NAMM Foundation advocating music in education.

We were able to speak to a few of the members there after the meeting:

Mike Mullens learned to play the drums at age 2 and now works at Performance Music Center, a family owned business, helping people fulfill their passion to learn a musical instrument.

JD Bailey founded OpenKanvas, a platform for A.R.T. (Actively Recruiting Talent) bringing together the most talented musicians, producers, artists, and videographers while sharing and promoting each other to those who deserve the lime light, giving them a chance to shine. It's a place where dreams paint your future!

We also met Cory Shackelford, a music attorney, and Chris Golinski, a composer, sound artist, and improviser with a specialty in percussion and is currently working on his masters thesis on why people buy music.

The future looks bright for the young professionals!