UAB Music Entrepreneur Guest Lecture Series presents Trevor Lawrence Jr. on April 28

Presented by the College of Arts and Sciences and the Collat School of Business, the series will bring music business professionals to speak and work with students, faculty and the community.
trevor lawrenceMusic producer, recording engineer and software designer Trevor Lawrence Jr.

Get an inside track on the music industry as the University of Alabama at Birmingham presents the UAB Music Entrepreneur Guest Lecture Series.

Presented by the College of Arts and Sciences and the Collat School of Business, the series will bring music business professionals to speak and work with students, faculty and the community. The Department of Music and the UAB African-American Studies Program are coordinating the lecture series. It is free and open to the public.

First up is music producer, recording engineer and software designer Trevor Lawrence Jr. Lawrence will speak on “Making It in the Music Industry” from 9:30-11 a.m. Thursday, April 28, in the UAB Hulsey Center for the Arts, Room 308, 950 13th St. South.

Lawrence has worked with some of the biggest names in the industry, including music mogul and Beats headphones founder Dr. Dre, Eminem, film composer Hans Zimmer, and jazz legend Herbie Hancock, among others. VIP Loops, the music software company co-owned by Lawrence, designed one of the most creative and widely used music plugins on the market today, Sound Platoon, which is distributed and licensed by major companies such as Apple, Avid and Big Fish Audio. Most recently, he participated in the production of both the Grammy Awards and American Black Film Festival Awards ceremonies. His music can be heard in the recent, critically acclaimed film “Straight Outta Compton” and Dr. Dre’s final album, “Compton: A Soundtrack.” 

For the 6:30 p.m. panel, Lawrence will join spoken word artist and musician Sharrif Simmons, hip-hop scholar and UAB Assistant Professor of African-American Studies DeReef Jamison, Ph.D., and Summit Media radio personalities Isis Jones (98.7 Kiss FM) and NuYork (95.7 Jamz FM). University Professor of Music Henry Panion III, Ph.D., will moderate the panel.

A roundtable discussion on the social, cultural and political impact of hip-hop will precede a free showing of the movie “Straight Outta Compton” later in the day, in the UAB Hill Student Center’s Alumni Theatre, 1400 University Blvd.

For the 6:30 p.m. panel, Lawrence will join spoken word artist and musician Sharrif Simmons, hip-hop scholar and UAB Assistant Professor of African-American Studies DeReef Jamison, Ph.D., and Summit Media radio personalities Isis Jones (98.7 Kiss FM) and NuYork (95.7 Jamz FM). University Professor of Music Henry Panion III, Ph.D., will moderate the panel.

This is one of several collaborations between the College of Arts and Sciences and the Collat School of Business. Plans are in the works to expand the present internship program to include the Innovation Depot, to create a specially designed minor in music business with an emphasis on entrepreneurship in the music entertainment industry, and to create joint musical and marketing projects between music and business students.

  • April 28