A Top 11 Billboard School: Driven by its branding aesthetic “Where minds and music matter and future leaders gather,” Harris Institute in Toronto, Canada is the only music business school located outside the U.S. in Billboard’s “Top 11 Schools.” It ranked best private school for a 6th year in the Media Arts Education Report and is one of the only post-secondary schools in North America to achieve four 0% student loan default rates. Founded by industry veteran John Harris, the college specializes in comprehensive audio and music industry education taught by award-winning leaders. In the last 2 years, graduates have won or were nominated for nearly 250 major awards, including Grammys, Emmys and Junos. Harris Institute is celebrating its 30th Anniversary in 2019 with $30K in scholarships.
A Word from John Harris: Harris founded the school in 1989 after achiev- ing success in a multitude of areas, including artist management, record company ownership, publishing and concert promotion. He helped take the first ever Canadian musical to Broadway (Rockabye Hamlet) and was the audio consultant for the 1987 visit of Pope John Paul II. “One of our major goals has always been to provide a broad-based skill set that will take students through the rest of their careers,” he says. “The industry has trans- formed 100% since we started, and in my view, the biggest change is the convergence of everything. It used to be everybody specialized in a single area. People needed to know a lot about one aspect of the business and not much about others. Today, everyone needs to know something about everything and a lot about something. What differentiates Harris Institute from other schools is that our students receive an advanced introduction to all aspects of the industry. All arts management students get info about the production process and all audio production students learn about arts management. They emerge with a broad-based knowledge set that will last a lifetime. Our focus is teaching people how to actually make a living in the music industry.”
Audio Production Program (APP): This is an accelerated 12-month diploma program featuring 61 courses in the art, technology and business of audio production taught by award-winning active industry leaders. Among other areas, it covers music recording, broadcast audio, game audio, audio posts for film and TV. Among its major projects is one where students select, record, mix and master a commercially viable artist and present to the A&R directors of three record companies.
Arts Management Program (AMP): This is an accelerated 12-month diploma program featuring 60 courses that focus on the new music in- dustry taught by award-winning active industry leaders. It covers concert promotion, record company management, international marketing, digital marketing, booking agencies, public relations and promotion. Among its major projects are setting up and operating an artist management com- pany over an eight-month period, and the administration and operation of an indie label over that same time span.
Contact Harris Institute,1-800-291-4477. Visit harrisinstitute.com
