Country Music Association Opens Application For CMA Kixstart

The Country Music Association's application for the CMA KixStart Artist Scholarship is currently accepting submissions for its second class of recipients. The year-long program is designed to provide emerging artists with unique professional and educational opportunities to help build a solid business foundation in the Country Music industry. Artists can visit CMAworld.com/KixStart to view the application and eligibility requirements. Deadline for application submissions is Friday, May 31 at 11:59 PM/CT. The program for the second class of KixStart scholarship recipients will begin in October.

Since being selected in the fall of 2018, the inaugural CMA KixStart Artist Scholarship recipients-Kassi Ashton, Travis Denning and Jameson Rodgers-have had the opportunity to perform around the world and gain a knowledge of the music business by meeting with some of the industry's top professionals. Next month, Ashton, Denning and Rodgers will join the Nissan Stadium lineup at this year's CMA Fest and kick off the show on Saturday, June 8, marking the first stadium appearances during the festival for all three artists. A limited number of four-day passes for the nightly performances at Nissan Stadium are still available at CMAfest.com or through the CMA Box Office at 1-800-CMA-FEST.

In October, Denning and Rodgers performed during a CMA Board meeting and took part in a Q&A session hosted by iHeartRadio EVP of Country Programming Strategy, Rod Phillips. Ashton traveled across the pond in October to join the CMA Songwriters Series tour in the U.K. In November, all three artists took part in "The 52nd Annual CMA Awards," participating in the pre-telecast reception in addition to Denning walking the Red Carpet and Rodgers performing at CMA's international reception prior to the CMA Awards.

At the beginning of 2019, the three artists participated in a music business education day at CMA, which included a lunch with Kix Brooks, an opportunity to chat with Garth Brooks, and one-on-one round robin-style meetings to learn more from leaders at companies such as Amazon Music, Apple Music, Pandora, SiriusXM, Spotify and YouTube. In March, Denning traveled to the U.K. to participate in the CMA Songwriters Series show during C2C: Country to Country festival and played additional shows during the festival in London and Glasgow. Ashton and Denning have both had the opportunity to stop by CMA and perform Live@CMA shows for CMA staff and CMA EDU students. Rodgers will visit CMA for a Live@CMA show scheduled this summer. Ashton also stopped by the CMA Board meeting in Austin, Texas last week to perform for CMA Board members and took part in a Q&A hosted by Phillips.

The CMA KixStart Artist Scholarship is named after former Chairman of the CMA Board and long-serving Board member Kix Brooks of Brooks & Dunn, who was at the forefront of creating the CMA Board of Directors' Artist Relations Committee in 2006. The program was developed by 2017 CMA Board Artists Relations Committee Chair, Marion Kraft, and Vice Chair, Mary Hilliard Harrington.

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