Cady Stribling
Features Editor
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Every year, students in the music business program have enriched the Murray State community by putting on Lovett Live, a performance where the audience gets to sit on stage with the artists while they play.
Although classes and campus life have moved entirely online, these students are now working to bring Lovett Live Stream to the community through a Facebook live-stream. The show will be dedicated to 2020 seniors and graduates.
Karen Kane, music business program director, said the show is intended to be an online graduation party.
“We will have music and shoutouts from a lot of Murray State ‘celebrities’ and Murray community leaders,” Kane said. “The artists are coming to us from their homes for the live-stream, but usually we have access to Lovett’s cool living room vibe for the live shows.”
Typically, audience members sit on the Lovett stage with couches, chairs and cool lighting to recreate a living room concert. Kane said they put on two or three concerts each year.
The live performance and concert promotion class is in charge of preparing these performances from booking the artists to loading in the production. This year, they booked DJ Tan the Man and Nashville singer-songwriters Stevenson Everett and Angie K.
“The artists for Lovett Live are chosen because they are on the verge of breaking through on the national music scene—tomorrow’s next music superstars,” Kane said. “We want Murray State to be on the cutting edge of what is happening in the music business.”
Susanna Poeysti, senior music business major, said the class is broken into promotions, logistics and communications teams. If they were back on campus, they’d also have merchandise, security, ticketing and hospitality teams.
“The class has to work together as a team to make the shows a success, which is an amazing learning experience for us,” Poeysti said. “I have been working on creating ads and leading the promotions team every day for several weeks now.”
She said it takes hours everyday to ensure the show is together. The different teams in the class are also in charge of promoting, contacting artists, writing contracts, creating videos and contacting community businesses and members.
Typically, Lovett Live’s theme is “Closer to the Music” because of the personal atmosphere of the performance, but the class knew they wanted to do something different this year.
“We all agreed that it would be a nice gesture to the graduating class of 2020 if we involved them,” Poeysti said. “They are missing their graduation ceremonies and parties due to the coronavirus, so we wanted to dedicate the show to them.”
Micah Frank, music business junior, said once classes moved online, students worked as a cohesive unit to make the live-stream happen.
“This whole idea of a live-stream started off in a discussion board and grew into so much more,” Frank said. “Due to the current circumstances, we wanted to hold something that would help people feel closer despite being far apart.”
Frank said he has felt closer to his community throughout the process of putting on the show and is proud to be a Racer.
“With the number of people chipping in, working together and the amount of support we have got from faculty and leadership across the campus, I feel like this is a tight-knit community that looks out for one another and helps where it is needed,” Frank said.
He said the class has put a lot of work into the show, and he hopes everyone enjoys what they have in store.
Lovett Live Stream will be on Facebook and YouTube on Friday, May 8, at 7 p.m. Central.