Our program is incredibly grateful to have had companies and industry professionals who have contributed to the program either through mentorship and guidance or with important industry resources for our students to experience once-in-a-lifetime hands-on opportunities. Below is a growing list of individuals who have made profound impacts on our program.

caroline yim - william morris endeavor

Caroline Yim is a partner and co-head of Hip-Hop/R&B at WME. Her extensive roster features Grammy award winners and nominees, including Jhené Aiko, Daniel Caesar, Giveon, Swae Lee, and Ella Mai. She represents many of the world’s leading musicians including Anderson .Paak & The Free Nationals, Gunna, The Internet, Rae Sremmurd, Future, Kehlani, Ella Mai, Jay Rock, Daniel Caesar and Jhené Aiko. She is also a co-founder of Asian American Collective, a networking and mentoring collective for Asian Americans in the music industry.

Yim has been named to Billboard’s “Women In Music” power list in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018; and was included in Billboard’s 2015 “40 Under 40” feature. She was also featured on Billboard’s Hip-Hop Power List in 2017, 2018 and 2019. For the past two years, she has been a Big Brothers Big Sisters LA Women In Entertainment Mentor. In early 2020, Caroline co-founded the Asian American Collective, a community organization that fosters growth, education, and connection for current and future Asian American creatives. She graduated from UCLA with a degree in Political Science. -GoldHouse.org
Every semester since Spring of 2020, Caroline has devoted her time to virtually meet Poly students and provide insight into careers in live music and working with artists at the highest caliber. At the end of every semester, Poly music technology and industry studies students develop an artist marketing campaign as their final project. Utilizing industry tools and data, as well as information learned throughout the term, students create a marketing plan for an artist of their choice. The top projects are then selected and presented to Caroline for feedback. This once-in-a-lifetime opportunity allows students to pitch a marketing idea to a high-level music industry executive.
Click to view images of Caroline with program graduates
Caroline and Ms Lui with a few selected top program graduates were invited to see R&B artist Syd (The Internet) perform live at The Novo by Microsoft and meet R&B artist Destin Conrad in June, 2022.
Formed in 1898, William Morris Endeavor is the longest-running talent agency. In 2009, William Morris Agency (WMA) merged with Endeavor to become one of the leading entertainment and media companies with an unparalleled list of artists and content creators. In 2014, WME acquired IMG, the global leader in sports, events, media and fashion, forming Endeavor.

helena ngo - fender musical instruments corporation

"Helena Ngo is a strategic connector of dots - equal parts curator, brand storyteller, and leader of creative collaborations. Her specialties include artist/talent and music industry relations, music strategy and curation, campaign development and activation, partnerships, event programming, content licensing and production. Helena is also a solutions-oriented collaborator who thrives on organization and ingenuity. Her work spans 150+ projects for global brands like Fender, Dolby, Microsoft, Live Nation/Ticketmaster, Corona, Billboard, Cisco, General Mills, Jim Beam and MOSCOT eyewear." . -Helena's LinkedIn
When Poly music student and aspiring singer/songwriter Demis Serrano started learning the guitar during quarantine, he had bought an "affordable" instrument with intonation all over the place and a missing string. Though he learned to navigate around it and even wrote a number of songs, Demis' potential was limited to his instrument's capability. With the guitars at Poly not being in much better shape, Ms Lui connected with Helena through the Asian American Collective community and sent her a video of Demis performing a song that he wrote for graduation.

​Weeks later, Helena and her Fender team (Stephanie Prom and Emilia Gore) sent Demis and his band, Only Good Intentions, an acoustic, electric, and bass guitars as gifts to properly record the song and perform in style at graduation, as well as continuing to make awesome music. This song titled, "This Goes Out to Us" went on to win first place at the Spotify/Soundtrap + Young Producers Group + Los Angeles Unified School District's 2022 Beat Battle Event.
Click to view images and video of the band performing at prom and graduation
Only Good Intentions (Demis Serrano, Brian Sierra, Dylan Miranda) performing at prom and graduation
Only Good Intentions performing "The Goes Out to Us" at the 2022 graduation
​Click to view images and video of the Beat Battle event
Demis Serrano '22 as a finalist in the vocalist category for the Soundtrap for Education Beat Battle in June 2022
[Please excuse Ms Lui's excited shouting]
Demis announced as first place winner in the vocalist category [Please excuse Ms Lui's excited shouting]
"An American icon, Fender was founded in Southern California and has established a worldwide influence that extends from the studio to the stage—and beyond. Everyone from beginners to the world’s most acclaimed artists have used Fender instruments, amps and gear, making the company not only a revered industry leader but a cultural symbol that resonates globally. Nearly seven decades since founder Leo Fender built his first electric guitar, Fender’s reach transcends instruments and accessories, encompassing a range of innovative digital experiences that fuel musical expression and serve players at every stage–on every stage." -Fender.com

james lamb - Point source audio

James' career as a professional trumpet player led him to New York, where he also became an arranger and music director—and even conducted at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. When James returned to California, he became the national sales manager of Apogee Sound. In 2000, Lamb was hired by Digigram, a French manufacturer of broadcast sound cards and network audio, where he spent 10 years in the company's business development side. After noticing that there was a niche in the market for a more durable earset microphone, Lamb founded his own company, Point-Source Audio (PSA), in 2008. -Mixonline.com
​James grew up in our Sun Valley community, having attended Byrd Middle School and Poly High School where he played trumpet. After graduating from Poly in 1978, James went on to attend CSUN and became a military musician. Although it has been decades since James physically returned to the Poly campus, he has provided Poly with incredible resources from equipment and instruments to virtually speaking with Poly students about careers and gears in music technology. Using his extensive knowledge and experience in having provided audio gear to some of the top Broadway productions, including Hamilton, Hairspray, Chicago ​and Mean Girls, and having patented multiple audio technology, Poly students gained valuable information on mic placement and connections to pricing on gear with a behind-the-scenes look on the impact of sound in live performances.
Click to view images of James guest lecturing Poly students
James guest lecturing virtually to the music technology and industries studies class in February, 2022
Point Source Audio is a solution-based design, engineering, and manufacturing company in the audio industry. With over 60 years of combined professional audio industry experience, the PSA product designers approach every product detail with a depth of understanding that results in ease, convenience, and efficiency in design. Point Source Audio has developed, engineered and manufactured transducer products for companies under a variety of brands. While continuing to do this, PSA is also focused on developing products under the Point Source Audio brand affording our customers a streamlined path for purchasing high value products. We sell our products exclusively through a network of high caliber resellers, contractors and distributors throughout the world. It is our goal to provide performance based products at great prices with the very best customer service and support. -Point-SourceAudio.com

PROUD MILESTONES
​Since its founding in 2008, Point Source Audio's lineup includes miniature microphones from earsets, headsets, lavaliers, proprietary earmounts and communication headsets. Through its developments, James even secured at least three patents for the EMBRACE earmount mics and the CM-series in-ear headsets. The company focuses on products for theater, broadcast, houses of worship and live sound where all of the products aim to "provide tools that help performers achieve the magic that they do on stage" (James in a 2018 interview). Headquartered in Petaluma, CA, designs all of its mics and headsets in-house with an eye towards developing innovations to “stay ahead of the curve in terms of identifying new tools and features that are useful to the industry.” -Mixonline.com
​
In 2014, PSA was named the worship industry's "Best in Microphone" and was voted TV Technology's "Best of Show" in 2017. View the video below to hear more about the PSA's innovations and impact on the live music industry.

justin polk - formerly at soundtrap (spotify)

Justin Polk was a music education training specialist at Soundtrap. He was previously head of the Instrumental Music Department at Arleta High School in Los Angeles Unified School District. His musical background and professional accolades are a reflection of the educators that paved his path into music academia.

Justin holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education from Southern University and A&M College at Baton Rouge, Louisiana and relocated to Los Angeles to begin his career. Aside from being a full-time educator, Justin performs as a percussionist with Solange Knowles and has directed bands for entertainment industry projects with Nike, Travis Scott, D. Smoke, and more.
Jay with Any and Demis Serrano (Poly '22)
​
​At the Soundtrap + LAUSD + Young Producers Group Beat Battle event at Spotify's Downtown office in 2022
"Soundtrap is an eclectic team of engineers, designers and music producers passionate about music & technology. United by the belief that there’s a better way to create music together, we’re building Soundtrap — the best collaboration platform for making music online.

Soundtrap democratizes and empowers high-quality collaborative music-making for the many people. Soundtrap Studio was launched in beta in 2013 as the world's first web-based, cross-platform, collaborative music recording studio. The following year, Soundtrap was featured at Google I/O in San Francisco for its ground-breaking technology and collaborative features. In 2015, Soundtrap won the AASL award "Best Website for Teaching & Learning" for its ease of use in the classroom.

Rapid growth followed in both the consumer and the education space and it grew to become the preferred tool for teaching music and audio recording in K12 schools globally. Soundtrap was founded by Per Emanuelsson, Björn Melinder, Fredrik Posse, Gabriel Sjöberg and Magnus Svedjebratt in the beautiful city of Stockholm, Sweden." -Soundtrap.com

laura & Van nixholm - All american audio visual event solutions

A dynamic wife and husband duo, Laura and Van are the engine and oil to their 20+ year-old audio and visual company.

​They are in high demand to supply audio and video needs to numerous and various types of events throughout Southern California and beyond.
All American Audio Visual and Poly are working together on a partnership to provide interested Poly music tech graduates the opportunity to shadow, intern and potentially become hired to work at AAAV. Laura and Van's openness to develop students for a future in live music and visual is an amazing hands-on opportunity that cannot be found elsewhere. As of June, 2022, Laura and Van has officially hired one of our program's recent graduate and star student, Demis Serrano to train and nurture his dream career in audio engineering.
Click to view images of Poly students learning about live sound from AAAV
AAAV team demonstrating to Poly music technology students how to wire and set up sound equipment for Poly graduation in June, 2022
AAAV team demonstrating to Poly music technology and media productions students how to set up for a live concert and graduations using professional equipment
All American Audio Visual is a full-service audio visual company, offering the best in pro audio, video, lighting, and video content creation since 1997. This company produces the finest and highest quality staging events in Southern California as well as specialized professional installations.

michelle yuen - Formerly at chartmetric

Michelle studied psychology, mental health and entertainment business at New York University before starting at Chartmetric as a Business Intelligence Analyst and now a Business Development Manager.

​She is passionate about developing the intersection of music and data on a global cross-cultural scale. Prior to living in New York, she spent time in Singapore, Shanghai and the Netherlands.
​Michelle strongly believes in building equity through access to information and data. When Ms Lui reached out to Michelle about partnering with Poly to provide students with access to real-world professional industry data, Michelle was incredibly gracious in providing our students with temporary access to complete our projects. To see the impact of Michelle and Chartmetric's generosity, view our student work and how it has given Poly students a unique opportunity to experience an industry career in artist management and marketing.
Click to view student work using data provided by Chartmetric
Coming soon
Chartmetric is a music analytics software designed to help artist managers, digital marketers, and music supervisors streamline decision-making processes and track albums, chart performance, and social key performance indicators (KPIs), among other metrics across multiple channels including Spotify, Apple Music, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Administrators can sort or filter playlists and export data tables or custom CSV and PDF reports based on artists, tracks, and albums on a centralized platform. It also allows music supervisors to monitor artists' tracks, audience demographics, followers, playlist overviews, and performance across various music streaming or social media platforms. Managers can search for similar artists based on metrics or genres and discover new talent based on the number of monthly listeners and popularity on an artists and repertoire (A&R) dashboard. Administrators can also analyze artists' demographics on YouTube or Instagram in terms of language, age, country, gender and subscribers, number of likes, or comments to connect with audiences.

Chartmetrics enables digital marketers to summarize music charts data in the form of graphs based on record labels, artists, duration, genre, and other categories. The software also lets artist managers track playlists' follower counts, record label ownership, and acoustic characteristics.