Fanshawe's MIA program wins Music School of the Year award for second year in a row

Header image for Interrobang article CREDIT: SETH MACEY
Fanshawe's Music Industry Arts (MIA) program is shining even brighter after being named the top music school in the country for the second year in a row, while at the Canadian Music and Broadcast Industry Awards (CMBIA).

Fanshawe’s Music Industry Arts (MIA) program was honoured to receive the Music School of the Year award at the Canadian Music and Broadcast Industry Awards (CMBIA) early last month. This is the second year in a row that Fanshawe has won this award, making it an exciting time for staff and students as it demonstrates the quality of programming that goes on within the walls of MIA.

The award is based on nominations and votes placed by registered professionals working in the Canadian music industry. According to the CMBIA website, this allows winners not to be “chosen by fans, or by a panel of judges, but by their own peers”.

MIA program co-ordinator, Dan Brodbeck, shared his excitement for this award and the respect that the industry has for the program.

“It’s amazing…since there’s so many grads out there working in the industry…if we weren’t very good they wouldn’t just log on and vote for us,” Brodbeck said.

He also shared that this is a nice confirmation of the quality of grads that leave Fanshawe, stating that many professional companies tell him they “always love to hire Fanshawe grads”.

“We keep getting told that, but obviously their going tell me that to my face so it’s kind of nice to hear that those people would have voted when nobody told them to vote that way,” Brodbeck said.

Brodbeck stated that a large part of MIA’s legacy is its deep history dating back to the program’s formation in 1973 by Radio Caroline DJ Tom Lodge.

“It was the first one of its kind [in Canada], as far as audio recording and record production… …we kind of created this education,” Brodbeck said.

Over the years the program has developed immensely, and no longer focuses solely on audio engineering and production but has a strong focus on several other areas in the industry. “The diversity of the program’s pretty huge, but we still have never really lowered any part of the program,” Brodbeck stated.

This diversity is a key reason why Fanshawe’s MIA stands out from the other programs in the country, which tend to focus on only a single area

“We also [teach] performance and a lot of artist development… there’s [other] schools that do performance… yet they don’t [teach] any of the other stuff that we do,” Brodbeck said.

This diverse learning environment aims to challenge and prepare students as best as possible for the current music industry.

“Excelling in everything is really difficult, it makes it hard for people but that’s why we challenge people to be good at all of it. Because I think it’s the only way to succeed in this industry,” Brodbeck said.

Despite its international recognition as an exceptional music industry school, the program is still constantly revamping and revisiting its curriculum in order to stay relevant.

“I think just to stay stagnant and say ‘we’re the best, this is what we do’ is obviously not going to work. Because the industry’s changing so we have to change with it. I think there’s a bit of a misconception with colleges that we can’t do that fast…and it’s just not true…we do change and move with the industry quite fast,” Brodbeck said.

In order to do so, Brodbeck shared how the program constantly receives guidance and encouragement from industry professionals in what they expect to see in Fanshawe grads.

“Yearly there’s program advisory committee meetings. So, those are people from every aspect of the music industry, from publishing, management, FACTOR [record label], recording engineers, producers, studio mangers, there’s about ten people… all of them but one [this year were Fanshawe] grads and they’re all top people in the industry. So, they care about the program, they didn’t just go to school there and leave. So, they would prefer to see it stay on the top as well,” Brodbeck said.

With all this support from almost 50 years of nurturing industry professionals behind it and big ambitions for the future, Fanshawe’s MIA program is one more reason to be proud to be a Fanshawe student.