Kevin Wilson, director of music for ESPN, far left, pictured with Claude Mitchell, right, ESPN’s coordinating director of music, will be speaking at Stetson about the two seemingly disparate worlds of sport and music. ‘The Business of Merging Sport and Music,” will be presented Wed., Jan. 22, at 7 p.m., in the Lynn Business Center’s Rinker Auditorium, room 108, 345 N. Minnesota Ave., DeLand. This event is free and open to the public. Wilson’s campus visit has been arranged by Matt Wilson, Ph.D., assistant professor of Sport Business.

“Being a liaison to the industry, I help create the commercial music strategies on the network while hiring composers to write for our library,” said Wilson. “Managing our music assistants, guiding our music coordinators, and working with the design operation and artist-driven shoots are just some of my responsibilities.”

After studying sound recording at the University of New Haven and music business at the University of Miami in the early 1990s, Wilson found it difficult to find work. He persevered while holding his own by delivering pizzas for Vita’s Deli. In 1993, Wilson catered a party at ESPN’s building and while there wrote down the name of an ESPN vice president, Al Jaffe, from the hallway wall, later sending him a resume and then scoring the job. Wilson eventually ascended to his current position and now has a variety of duties.

Wilson’s position allows him to interact with many different artists on all kinds of projects.

“Working with Chuck D, Eminem and many others has been an unforgettable experience,” Wilson said. “I love picking music for end-of-the-century images such as the Red Sox’s 86-year drought. For me, every day is truly a highlight.” Wilson’s love of music and sports has allowed him an exciting career.

“I want people to learn to be more open to the idea of music being in more places than one might think,” he said. “With that we can capture the emotion, style, and attitude of sport through music placements and relationships. Sports and music are really two similar lifestyles.”

The original ESPN Baseball Tonight theme song has been recorded by many artists such as Grace Potter and Da Zoo.

by George Salis