College of Music graduate Malcolm McLean works at his desk in the customer success department at music software company MakeMusic.
A music degree can lead you to any number of different careers.
You could even wind up working at a software company.
鈥淎 background in music is a requirement. You have to know or play an instrument to work here. They weren鈥檛 concerned that I didn鈥檛 know computers when I started.鈥�
Stephanie Doctor is one of a half dozen College of Music graduates working at Boulder-based, a software company known well in the music world. As the team behind Finale, SmartMusic, Garritan and MusicXML, MakeMusic makes products that provide help with music notation and practice.
And this music-savvy group of CU-Boulder alumni provides help with the products.
Doctor, a 2014 saxophone performance and pedagogy MM graduate, works in the customer success department. She spends her days walking music teachers through SmartMusic, a program that trains young musicians on a vast catalog of practice repertoire.
鈥淲e take customer questions and help out with technical issues and problem solving. Then we pass bugs along to the developers to fix them,鈥� Doctor says.
鈥淲e need to have a vast understanding of music. We鈥檙e helping the church organist down the street, but we鈥檙e also helping really advanced music engravers,鈥� she explains. 鈥淎nd people are always really impressed when we talk to them. I don鈥檛 think they expect to speak to a musician at a software company.鈥�
Composition graduate Jess Garrett works on debugging music notation software Finale.
The importance of a music background at MakeMusic comes into play for Jess Garrett as well. The 2013 composition BM grad tests automation on music notation software Finale.
It鈥檚 a program she knew like the back of her hand before she even came to the College of Music.
鈥淟ong before I began studying composition, working at Finale was a bucket-list job,鈥� says Garrett, who minored in computer science at CU-Boulder. 鈥淢y interest was always in music and software.鈥�
Garrett used Finale for several years, learning the ins and outs that made her a better composer鈥攁nd would one day give her the tools to secure a job at MakeMusic.
鈥淣otating music is really complex,鈥� she says. 鈥淵ou have to know what鈥檚 going wrong with the app and have an expectation of how things are supposed to work.
鈥淚f you don鈥檛, you won鈥檛 be effective at testing and improving the product.鈥�
Other members of the team, like Michelle Jones (BM Bassoon/BME 鈥�12) and Malcolm McLean (BM Horn 鈥�12), say their broad range of experiences at the College of Music set them up for success at MakeMusic after their career paths took different turns.
Jones, an Education Account Manager, taught music for two years in the Douglas County School District before making a change. 鈥淒eciding being a teacher wasn鈥檛 for me was kind of scary,鈥� she says. 鈥淏ut I鈥檓 glad I took the risk and looked for something that was a better fit.鈥�
MakeMusic employees hold an impromptu meeting in their Boulder office.
And now, she says, it鈥檚 the best of both worlds. She鈥檚 still in the music education field, helping teachers.
鈥淚 work with music educators and assist them with implementing SmartMusic into their curriculum.鈥�
McLean says his experience with the CU Symphony Orchestra and Pendulum New Music helped prepare him for his post-graduation career as freelance musician. 鈥淭hanks to the guidance of [horn professor] Michael Thornton and [orchestra director] Gary Lewis, I was ready to step into fill-in positions at the Colorado Symphony and the Greeley Philharmonic.鈥�
He says as much as he loves performing, music playing is not for everyone. His position in Customer Success at MakeMusic allows him to leverage his passion for music and stretch his legs in different areas.
鈥淚鈥檝e always had broad interests,鈥� he says. 鈥淎t this job, I get to talk to musicians and performers, along with composers. We all speak the same language.鈥�
As these musicians expand their technological skills鈥攚hile continuing to play music on their own time鈥攖hey鈥檙e reminded every day of the value of their music pedigree.
鈥淧eople will look at those skills and see that you know how to use Finale, or you know how to collaborate with other people. Those are things you should have on your resume,鈥� says Jones.
And you should think outside the box.
鈥淒on鈥檛 be afraid to fail,鈥� says Garrett. 鈥淕o out there and pursue what you love. If you decide you don鈥檛 like it, it鈥檚 OK. Your past and your interests are what make you stand out.鈥�
MakeMusic's relationship with the College of Music doesn't end here. Mark Adler, the company's top notation engineer, works with College of Music composition students for a couple of hours every month on notation engraving.
For more information about the MakeMusic team,.
