Estudiantes de GRAMMY U en «Legends Of The Summer», San Francisco

El viernes, 26 de julio, Justin Timberlake guió a los estudiantes de Grammy U por el Candlestick Park de San Francisco durante una prueba de sonido para el concierto «Legends Of The Summer». A continuación, las imágenes y el artículo de los corresponsales del grupo:

GRAMMY U: Chicago Soundcheck with Justin Timberlake +13 imágenes

Grace Mun — What do you get when you take Candlestick Park, The Legends of The Summer Stadium Tour, hardworking and passionate professionals, and San Francisco GRAMMY U members?

The opportunity of a lifetime… Oh, and a ton of questions.

And that is exactly what was with me as VIP passes were passed around and we were taken behind the scenes of the The Legends of The Summer tour.

No one knew what to expect, so my expectations were set at the last GRAMMY U SoundChecks event, listening to the sound check, talking with a few techs, and having time to talk with the band.

From the first moment we spoke with the leader of our tour, my expectations hit the fan. Renee Earnest, previously known as JT’s grade school teacher, was full of wit, charm, and jokes, making sure that all the professionals on the tour made time to talk with us, from the business side of things on the PR and Management fronts, to the technical teams behind sound, lighting, staging, and even the band members and musical director, all who us gave us lots of time to ask questions and who freely shared insight into their roles on the tour.

We even ran into SF Chapter Icon and 2013 Technical GRAMMY Award® winner Dave Smith, who was on a backstage tour of his own with his team at Dave Smith Instruments. (Dave invented MIDI, among other legendary synth instruments!)

With every new tech and manager we met, my previous intuitions were confirmed: This backstage tour was more than just good PR, these people actually cared about the next generation of entertainment leaders; and this was more than an incredible team of hard working professionals, this was a family (a giant one at that).

We had a chance to walk up on the juggernaut stage, which is so complex the roof alone takes 3 days to put it up! Looking into the soon to be packed out stadium, I had a moment of peace, along with an overwhelming sense that I was in the right business and that my time is coming soon.

We were taken to JT’s family trailer, where we found JT playing basketball in his rare down time; he invited us into one of his trailers for a Q&A session. All of us were happily surprised with his genuine curiosity in each one of us and our career aspirations. His down to earth style made for a light atmosphere and a great place to learn. We talked about his creativity process and how his CDs came to be, about the concept of media and transmedia, what many of us today call «social media», and the overall need to simply be humble and a good person.

The surprises continued when Justin pulled some tickets from his pocket and invited us to stay for the show… just when we thought it couldn’t get any more exciting, we were invited to watch the show from Front of House. The tech students among us were especially thrilled, as we all were, at this new concert point of view.

The entire backstage tour and performance of the Legends of The Summer show made for an inspirational and motivational time, but my favorite line of the night was these words of wisdom from Justin, «You only get one chance to get out».

I saw, I learned, and with that, I am ready to conquer.

Thank you to Justin and his incredible team for this tremendous opportunity that we San Francisco GRAMMY U members will not soon forget!