North Carolina Music Educators Association’s first-ever virtual conference featured three days of performances by Voctave, Airmen of Note and Boston Brass, renowned national speakers and riveting networking and professional development sessions.

The event, which is usually held in Winston-Salem and attracts more than 6,000 participants, was on the verge of being cancelled this year due to the association’s limited access to videoconferencing technology. That was until UNCP Music Professor and NCMEA board member José Rivera stepped in with a solution.

“The (NCMEA) has one Zoom license and limited staff so they wouldn’t have been able to host the number of webinar sessions being planned,” Rivera said. “UNCP has three Zoom licenses and we offered to have our music education students and staff host the sessions.”

The result was a well-coordinated effort by the music majors, music department staff and careful guidance from the university’s Division of Information Technology (DoIT) team.

“This event would have not been possible without the leadership and commitment to service from our DoIT staff,” he said. “I cannot thank them enough for their efficiency and professionalism.”

In the days following the conference, Rivera received several emails from representatives from higher education music organizations across the state praising UNCP for assuming a leadership role with this year’s event.

“This was a pretty big deal for our music department and for UNCP. It helped put our name on the map, so I’m grateful for everyone who was instrumental in making the conference a success.”