MBA student wins Grammy Award

Derek Kwan, a first-year MBA student at the UW–Madison School of Business Bolz Center for Arts Administration, won a Grammy Award last night for Best Traditional Tropical Latin Album.

Kwan was associate producer for “Bebo De Cuba” featuring Bebo Valdes (Calle 54 Records). He was co-producer for another album, “Una Noche Inolvidable” featuring the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra with Arturo O’Farrill (Palmetto Records), which was also nominated in the same category.

“It’s exciting, but it’s not about me; it’s about the artists,” Kwan says. “I’m just happy to be along for the ride. That’s what I’m hoping to do with my career, to facilitate and provide meaningful opportunities for the artists.”

Kwan is a Los Angeles native who earned his undergraduate degree in political science and music at Duke. He worked at Jazz at Lincoln Center as the associate director for programming and concert operations in New York for five years before coming to the School of Business. In addition to producing live concerts, he gained experience producing records, in which he worked closely with the performing artists, helping them choose their repertoire and selecting the best takes during the mixing process.

Kwan hopes having an MBA in Arts Administration from UW–Madison will help him develop a career as a producer of a wider variety of art performance, including classical music and dance. As part of his studies with the Bolz Center for Arts Administration he is working as the education and outreach coordinator for UW–Madison’s Union Theater.

Recent articles in Business Week and CNN.com have noted that the Wisconsin MBA is at the forefront of a trend toward specialized MBA programs. The mission of the program is to be the school of choice for students who have a clear career objective. The focused program facilitates real-world experiences and effective career networking.