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Accent on the Arts Series Celebrates 10 Years at Owens

Over the last decade, the Accent on the Arts free concert series has given Music Business Technology students countless lessons outside of the classroom at Owens Community College.

Accent on the Arts will kick off its 10^th season on Thursday, October 2 at 7:30 p.m. when pianist Gerardo Teissonnière performs at the Center for Fine and Performing Arts (CFPA) mainstage theatre. Teissonnière will also host a workshop, beginning at 4:30 p.m. Both the concert and workshop are partially sponsored by a grant from the Ohio Arts Council.

Starting in the fall semester of 2016, the purpose for Accent on the Arts was to provide experiential learning for students, according to Denise Grupp-Verbon, internship manager for the School of Liberal Arts.

“It’s the practical application of skills learned,” Grupp-Verbon said. “You can pretend you’re doing something but there’s nothing like actually doing it.”

Since the beginning, students have been actively leading Accent on the Arts. From naming the series to recruiting and booking acts, this is a student-run event.

Herbey Atkinson was a student in the first Music Business Technology class to host Accent on the Arts. Now the manager for Owens Community College Radio, he pulled many valuable lessons from the experience.

“The one that sticks out the most is the importance of networking and building your network to tap into not only your resources but other team members resources,” he said. “It’s a great lesson that I learned and continue to use to this day.”

Current Music Business Technology student Luke Vincent agreed that Accent on the Arts is a great way to connect with people. It’s also an opportunity to find out about different genres of music.

“I remember that I got to meet Ted Yoder at his concert. I got to shake his hand at the concert,” Vincent said. “I also got to meet other members as well. It’s also a good concert series to explore different kinds of music.”

Since 2016, the series has hosted two concerts in the fall and two in the spring, with almost all on the main stage at the CFPA.

That had to change in 2020 with the Covid pandemic. The final concert in the 2019-2020 series was canceled, and the 2020-2021 series had only two concerts, both presented via prerecorded video.

“We just figured it out,” Grupp-Verbon said. “The one that was canceled was one of the videos the next season. I thought it was only fair.”

For Michael Sander, dean of the School of Liberal Arts, the Accent on the Arts series provides invaluable experiences for Owens students, especially when pairing arts education with business training to enrich lives and institutions.

“Over the past decade, Accent on the Arts has become much more than just a performance series, it is a vibrant experiential learning lab for our Music Business Technology students,” Sander said. “Our students gain real world experience in negotiating with artists, organizing logistics, promoting events, managing budgets and executing performances. They graduate not only with technical and musical skills, but with confidence, professionalism and an understanding of what it takes to bring arts events to life.

“Owens itself is benefits by a stronger community presence, more connection between students and local artists, and a growing reputation for creativity and leadership in the arts.”

Grupp-Verbon said her favorite part of Accent on the Arts is welcoming community members into the CFPA and watching the looks on their faces.

“It’s nice when you’re bringing people in from the community to show them what a cool space we have,” Grupp-Verbon said. “We have that theatre, why not show it off? I still talk to people who don’t know that building is there, and we opened it in fall 2003. One of the things that it’s doing is making Owens part of the community, just showing that we’re here.”

There have been a wide variety of acts take the stage over the years. All of those personalities brings plenty of fun stories. One of Atkinson’s favorites comes from a mariachi band’s trumpet player.

“He was dead set on not using a microphone for his trumpet because, in his words, ‘real mariachis don’t need microphones,’” Atkinson said.

Having made it through a pandemic, a microphone-adverse trumpet player and plenty of other hurdles, Accent on the Arts is showing no signs of slowing down. Grupp-Verbon gave credit to campus partners but especially Sander and Jeremy Meier, chair of the Fine and Performing Arts department.

“There must be something that we’re doing that’s awesome,” Grupp-Verbon said. “The fact we got to 10 years is showing commitment in itself.”

To learn more about Accent on the Arts and find a concert schedule, visit owens.edu/cam/cfpa-schedule.