Second year Music Industry Arts (MIA) students Jenna Bjornson and Alex Emrich are a part of the entirely student run creative team for the annual Share the Land (STL) charity concert.

Both students were inspired to join the team after seeing last year's production of STL and have been working hard to make it the most memorable year so far.

As the general manager, Bjornson plays an integral role in making sure that everything runs smoothly “I basically oversee every aspect of the show from the stage, to the A&R team, to the marketing team... basically everything that needs to be done…goes through me and I delegate it to other people,” Bjornson said.

Emrich also holds a key position, as the music director, making sure everything concerning music and performance is entertaining and well-rehearsed. “Essentially I lead a team of very, very talented…A&R people, that help me make decisions in terms of…everything from song choice to band members and…the arrangements of the songs and the performance,” Emrich said.

One of the most important aspects in keeping the show preparation going as well as it has is the trust that these two key players have for one another “We work together on a few things and I trust him a lot,” Bjornson said. “Which is definitely one of the main parts [in dealing with the pressure of the show] because he has such a crucial role.”

This team faced a much greater challenge this year than any year previous, not only due to the fact that it's being run in a larger venue with a larger number of acts, but also because they had difficulties caused by the province-wide college faculty strike to overcome during preparation. This serves as a great example of how independent the creative team really is as they did not slow down, even with their professors gone. “We still met every week just to keep it going,” Bjornson said. “We knew as soon as [the strike was over] we'd have to go full force. So just having a lot of things already planned out, so we didn't have to worry about it come the end of the strike, was really, really important.”

Emrich shared that all this hard work certainly paid off “We're a month ahead of the show now and we've got the show almost together…We're just lucky that we had our facilities open because classes stopped but it [didn't] mean that MIA stopped,” he recalled.

For Emrich, one of the most rewarding experiences to being on the team has been seeing the growth in his fellow classmates. “I think overall for me the process is extremely exciting because we're pleasantly surprised every week with our rehearsals. We come back and see another amazing group play…seeing where we could take things” Emrich said.

Both students are looking forward to seeing how the show comes together on the day of, as it will certainly be a night to remember. “It will be nice to just see everything just fall into place and just go smoothly,” Bjornson says, “I have no doubt that it will work really, really well. We've been working really hard.”

Those interested in seeing this show, which is promising to be an exciting night, can come to the London Music Hall on Feb. 7. More info on the show and ticket sales is available at Facebook.com/ShareTheLandFanshawe.