There was much more to the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards ceremony on January 26th than the general public saw on television. As part of the festivities, The John Lennon Educational Tour Bus (JLB), a non-profit mobile audio and HD video recording and production studio, parked next to the Staples Center to further its cause of advocating music education. In association with the Grammy Music Education Coalition (GMEC), students from the Los Angeles Unified School District spent time writing and producing songs, assisted and encouraged by the JLB staff and celebrities including Bootsy Collins and DMC (Run DMC). The JLB also presented numerous additional performances, tours and activities. Neutrik is a long-term sponsor of the JLB, which uses Neutrik exclusively. This sponsorship of the JLB, plus the fact that the company’s connectivity products are used extensively at the Grammy Awards, made Neutrik ideally situated to share its knowledge and experience throughout the JLB’s stopover in Los Angeles.
The JLB teamed up with GMEC—a non-profit organization dedicated to building universal music education participation in elementary and secondary schools nationwide—to present a roundtable discussion addressing music from the perspectives of performance, education, production, and live event engineering. Neutrik USA’s Peter Milbery, president, and Stacy Kaskon, director of Business Development, participated in the discussion along with Brian Rothschild, co-founder and executive director of the Lennon Bus, along with the mobile studio’s creative technology officer, Jeff Sobel.
“Sponsoring the JLB is an honor for Neutrik,” Milbery commented. “We feel privileged to be part of its efforts. As President of Neutrik USA, one of my favorite events during the pre-Grammy festivities was the roundtable discussion—recorded right there on the bus—about how we all become interested in music at such a young age. This love of music is precisely what makes us passionate about Neutrik and supporting all of the wonderful brands, engineers and artists who use Neutrik connectors to ensure the best, most reliable connectivity when creating great audio, video, and lighting experiences.”
Kaskon echoes Milbery’s enthusiasm, saying: “We love partnering with the JLB and its mission to inspire students to create art, music, and video using the latest software and technologies. This was a terrific opportunity to meet wonderful like-minded organizations, such as The Grammy Music Education Coalition, and share experiences and perspectives. Neutrik lends support to the JLB not only monetarily but also by donating customized cables and all of the bus’s connectors. It is an honor to be a part of this incredibly important movement that supports our educational market efforts.”
