Rhodes College’s Mike Curb Institute for Music, which involves students in the inner workings of the music business from sound editing and video production to marketing and community engagement, has landed on Billboard’s annual list of Top Music Business Schools for the fourth time in a row.

Dr. John Bass, associate professor and longtime director of the Mike Curb Institute for Music at Rhodes College, has taught guitar at Rhodes every semester for the past 20 years, and while teaching a new course called Songwriting in Memphis during the Spring 2024 semester, he finally decided to record and release some of his own songs.

Jason Isbell, four-time Grammy Award-winning recording artist, will discuss his music and career at Rhodes College on Feb. 7 as part of its Springfield Music Lecture Series. Isbell also will discuss his thoughts on what musicians can do to transform the world that surrounds them. Dr. Charles L. Hughes, music historian and director of The Lynne and Henry Turley Memphis Center at Rhodes, will be in conversation with Isbell.

Harry Dircks ’24 has spent the past four years bringing music to Rhodes through the Mike Curb Institute for Music and spreading Rhodes’ music and values worldwide with the Rhodes Singers. An English major, he has maintained an interdisciplinary focus that led to an internship at an international company and plans to pursue a career in marketing.

Khulan Erdenechimeg ’24 believes that every artist has a unique story to be shared, and it's her mission to ensure that these stories are as diverse and inclusive as the world of music itself. Her goal as a Curb Fellow team leader for the last two years has been to create equitable spaces for music enthusiasts, no matter their experience.

Rhodes College’s Mike Curb Institute for Music has been named to Billboard’s list of the 2023 Top Music Business Schools. This is the third time the college has made the roster since 2020; Billboard did not release a list in 2021.

Dr. John Bass, associate professor of music and director of the Mike Curb Institute for Music at Rhodes, has been invited to be a performer and clinician at the Festival Internacional de Guitarra to be held in Cartagena, Colombia Oct. 11-15.

Rhodes is featured as one of Billboard magazine’s “2022 Top Music Business Schools” for its Mike Curb Institute for Music. This is not the college’s first appearance on this world stage, having also made the roster in 2020.

Jackson Hendrix ’24 began his journey at Rhodes knowing nothing of cameras—fast forward to his junior year, the computer science and media studies double major is leading a video team working to bring back a piece of history.

Rhodes College music major Lina Beach ’23 is recording her first album at the legendary Willie Mitchell’s Royal Studios in Memphis, where musicians such as Al Green, Ann Peebles, Rod Stewart, John Mayer, and Bruno Mars have recorded hits. Beach also has been cutting tracks with musicians from the talented Hi Rhythm Section, which once was the studio’s house band and helped to define the studio’s unique sound.