Sean Fitzgerald | IN FOCUS REPORTER

Music graduates will be working in Twistin’ to the 60s this summer at Paramount Canada’s Wonderland.

“They mostly hire musicians from Humber,” said Anthony Carone, 21, a recent graduate from the Lakeshore music program.

Music graduates are finding the job market challenging.

In the 2005 Humber Graduate Report, 66 per cent of music alumni were employed after graduation.

“If you’re not good enough, not versatile enough, you’re not going to find work,” Carone said. He plans to perform solo and as a member of the ska-punk band, The Knockouts, before his performance in the Wonderland show begins.

Carone said the program has incorporated a new element. Students must work for 14 weeks in the music industry before they graduate.

“But there’s nowhere to play right now,” he added. “Jazz clubs in Toronto are closing down left and right.”

Music business courses are offered to help students network, said Denny Christianson, director of the school of creative and performing arts.

“For anybody in the arts, work is always gained through word-of-mouth,” he said.

Graduates fall into different areas in the industry, Christianson said, including teaching in music schools, performing on cruise ships or working with major music labels.

“One of our responsibilities is to create diverse pathways for a successful career,” he said.

Ryan Boisselle, 23, will graduate from the program in April. He said only a handful of his classmates will generate full-time income in music right after graduation.

Boisselle said all serious music students should think of music as a business.

“The only way you’re going to make money is if you market yourself as a product,” he said.

He said the business class he is taking is an elective and nearly half of the 35 students have dropped the course.

“(Our instructor) threw a statistic at us,” Boisselle said. “He said ‘10 per cent of you will be pursuing a career in music, but the other 90 per cent will eventually fizzle out.’ He wanted us to prove him wrong.”