Student Feature: Cait Lunsford
Musicology, music business, psychology. These three things may seem somewhat disparate, stretching across the physical sciences, the arts, and business administration. But for Cait Lunsford, they are not separate boxes, but interconnected threads that describe her academic and professional experience.
“At the beginning, my majors in psychology and music and culture were two independent things. But there’s a surprising amount of overlap. For example, I took the class Sensory Processes and Perception and absolutely fell in love with it, because I was able to bring that knowledge into my composition work, and vice versa,” she says. “When you think about it, it actually makes perfect sense to be interested in both music and the mind: composition and performance are intimate acts of expression, and what is it that’s being expressed? The human psyche! So, having a deep understanding of the mind aids in my ability to express emotion and tell stories through music.”
She was initially admitted to UT as a studio music & jazz major, but changed to being undeclared right before her first semester, feeling torn between her interest in several fields. But, in her own words, “I missed music.” Lunsford grew up surrounded by music, with parents who had a large music collection and plenty of instruments in the house. She joined her middle school band as a clarinetist and decided to pick up the alto saxophone as well after a few years. Soon after, she added jazz singing lessons on top of that. The thing that brought her back to music as a major field of study was ethnomusicology, the scholarly study of music through an anthropological lens and its historical connection to culture at large. She later joined UT’s Balinese Gamelan Ensemble at the suggestion of Assistant Professor Jonathan Adams.
Through the music and culture major at UT, she’s been able to work on several exciting projects, such as assisting in the compilation of a database featuring composers from underrepresented backgrounds, as well as music and storytelling that overlaps with her psychology research interests. But her horizons in the music field soon began to expand. She became aware of the Los Angeles Music Industry Summer Academy (LAMISA), a program for aspiring artists that provides work experience and mentorship opportunities in the music field, from music business to composition to production and audio engineering. It’s a highly competitive program, only accepting 20 students each year. Lunsford is one of those 20.
“I really wanted to get my feet wet in music production because I just hadn’t had very much experience with the technological side of music, or opportunities to start learning how to do it. I brought up this program to my composition instructor offhand while expressing my frustration, but she urged me to apply!”
The LAMISA program runs for two weeks during the summer, during which time residents are housed in Los Angeles. They work directly with music production professionals doing work for prestigious artists and are mentored in composition/songwriting, music production, and audio engineer, as well as the ins and outs of the music industry from a business perspective. With the beginning of the LAMISA program coming soon, there are several aspects of the experience that will bring incredible professional and artistic opportunities for Lunsford, but she says the professional networking opportunities that come with the program are especially noteworthy.
“I’ll be working with and learning from active professionals in the music business, many of which have even been nominated for Grammys and other prestigious awards,” she said. “Having access to that much expertise both during and after the program is really exciting.”
