{"id":30251,"date":"2018-02-22T12:00:44","date_gmt":"2018-02-22T19:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=30251"},"modified":"2018-03-16T14:34:47","modified_gmt":"2018-03-16T20:34:47","slug":"alumni-profile-masters-at-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=30251","title":{"rendered":"Alumni profile: Masters at music"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Jon Gillin (left) and Mark Young (right)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

An unlikely duo, Jon Gillin and Mark Young both felt an overwhelming sense of uncertainty before approaching college, but their time at UCCS left them prepared for business ownership and ready to accomplish a great deal in the Colorado Springs community.<\/span><\/p>\n

Just a few years removed from their time in the visual and performing arts program, the two teamed up as business partners, leading them to become mentors to hundreds of students at their successful guitar shop, SilversoundGuitar. But thei<\/span>r path to success wasn\u2019t an easy one.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mark nervously approached VAPA faculty for an interview, during which he admitted he didn\u2019t even know how to read music.<\/p>\n

\u201cI figured why not give it a shot? If I\u2019m rotten, they\u2019ll tell me, and I\u2019ll just have to pick something else to do in life,\u201d Mark recounted. \u201cThey said, \u2018Well you\u2019re going to learn it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Jon said his original interest was history, but he continued to feel the call of music, leading him to shift his focus. Both agreed the rigors of the program kept them on track and building their portfolio of skills.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did performances at the end of every semester, and they could fire you at the end of the program,\u201d Mark said. \u201cThey gave me the material and the motivation I needed to learn.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the biggest things the VAPA program bestowed upon Jon and Mark is their friendship. The two met in one of their classes in which a professor required duet recitals.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor somebody with a lot of performance anxiety, it was nice to have someone there with you,\u201d Mark said. \u201cI thought I would surround myself with people who were talented, and Jon was one of those guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Both realized they specialized in\u00a0skills the other lacked.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us, it was the thought that we\u2019d come together and both work at what we are good at as a team,\u201d Jon said.<\/p>\n

Luckily, the bond forged between the two musicians provided options after Mark graduated in 2012 and Jon graduated in 2014.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re an artist or a musician after college, you don\u2019t have a job you just get to go do,\u201d Mark explained. \u201cYou don\u2019t get to say, \u2018I\u2019m going to apply to this place.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

With confidence that music can be a profession, the two teamed up, splitting rent as they offered guitar lessons, teaching all of the skills they picked up along their journey at UCCS. Jon said he really enjoyed the hustle Mark displayed and he had some prior business knowledge, leading the two to become co-owners of Silversound Guitar.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe worked our butts off, 80 hours a week, sacrificing friendships and personal gain to grow the business,\u201d Jon said.<\/p>\n

In just a few years, the pair outgrew one location and are about to outgrow their second shop. They\u2019ve expanded the instruments they teach, opened a recording studio and continue to cater to a growing range of students.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m doing what I want to do,\u201d Mark said. \u201cI want bigger, badder, stronger and more likeminded musicians to come work here. Preferably from UCCS because they teach a lot of good stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jon couldn\u2019t agree more, pointing to UCCS as the sounding board of their success.<\/p>\n

He believes faculty prioritize thinking outside the box, realizing music is omnipresent in modern media, in video games, commercials, films and almost every industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery teacher I had, I just loved,\u201d Mark said. \u201cThey were so good, welcoming and inviting. If you told them you didn\u2019t get something, they\u2019d make themselves available to do a one-on-one. To me, that was just above and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n

###<\/p>\n

— By\u00a0Mark Belcher, University Marketing. This article original appeared in the \u201cAchieve \u2013 UCCS Success Stories\u201d publication.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An unlikely duo, Jon Gillin and Mark Young both felt an overwhelming sense of uncertainty before approaching college, but their time at UCCS left them prepared for business ownership and ready to accomplish a great deal in Colorado Springs. (More)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30252,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1,45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all","category-arts-and-culture"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Sun_shot_HD_optimized.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1mBpJ-7RV","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30251"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30761,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30251\/revisions\/30761"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}