The path from Mon Hills to Music City for a WVU alum

WVU music business and industry alum Sarah Giles made her way from Morgantown to Nashville after graduation well prepared for her current role in artist management with performers that include Luke Bryan, Cole Swindell, Dylan Scott and Chayce Beckham. She 's also working on her third studio album and recently joined the faculty in the music business and industry program as an online instructor. (Submitted Photo)

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At West Virginia University , Sarah Giles learned the part that rarely makes it on the brochure - there isn't a straight line into the music industry. You build your way in - through relationships, hustle and long nights. Most importantly, you just keep showing up.

Now she's in Nashville, working in artist management with artists like Luke Bryan, Cole Swindell, Dylan Scott, and Chayce Beckham and right in the middle of the moving parts she used to picture from afar. Her days are a mix of tour marketing and strategy calls, contract language and artist teams, plus the steady, behind-the-scenes problem solving that keeps everything on track so the show can go on.

She didn't arrive with a perfectly drawn plan.

WVU gave Giles more than skills - it offered the opportunity for her to earn two degrees and gave her clarity on where she fit in the music industry. (Submitted Photo)

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"I was extremely undecided in high school when I was looking into colleges and careers," Giles said.

Her high school choir director in Green, Ohio, Julie Pickering, was one of the first people to guide her toward pursuing a music career.

"I remember her saying to me, 'You just light up on stage - I think there's something there,'" Giles said. "And I eventually realized just how right she was."

That curiosity brought her first to Tiffin University to study commercial music and vocal performance, and later, one phone call sealed a move to WVU. As she considered transferring to expand her studies, she connected with now-retired faculty member Darko Velichkovski, former director of Mon Hills Records and professor in the WVU College of Creative Arts and Mediamusic business and industry program.

"I had a call with Darko, a total stranger who ended up being one of my greatest mentors," she said.

"He spent two hours on the phone with me that day, discussing career paths and the music industry, and by the end of the call I knew that I wanted to be at WVU and learn everything he had to teach me."

A single phone call brought Giles to WVU. Mentorship by Darko Velichkovski, shown here with Giles at a capstone event, and the rest of the music business and industry faculty, kept her here and then propelled her forward to Nashville. (Submitted Photo)

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Once she arrived in Morgantown, Giles leaned into experiential learning opportunities through Mon Hills, the student-run label at WVU, which became a proving ground that didn't just teach her how to execute, it taught her how to think.

What surprised her most was how many careers exist behind the stage lights - and how much of the industry runs on people who know how to organize, communicate and follow through.

"It just lit a spark and curiosity in me and I just never looked back," Giles said. "Darko is a voice that always rings through still now. Problem solving - he just had this incredible way of challenging you to get to the root of the problem and focus on your personal mission. It's still one of the greatest things he ever taught me."

She also credits Josh Swiger, now director of the WVU music business and industry program, for helping students stay grounded and creative - and for showing them what it looks like to make space for the work, even when you don't have to.

At WVU, learning didn't stop in the classroom. Giles honed her craft in spaces like Mon Hills Records and faculty member Josh Swiger's Blues Alley Studio & Records where she returned this year to record new music. (Submitted Photo)

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"Josh's personal studio, Blues Alley Studio & Records - he didn't have to, but he opened his doors to all of us with no agenda other than just seeing where the music went," she said. "I spent many nights at Blues Alley."

When it came time to decide what was next, Giles stayed for graduate school partly because she said she wasn't finished.

"We just had a lot of unfinished work with the label and the artists I was working with," she said. "And I really just wasn't ready to leave."

That extra time gave her room to expand what she'd already built. She released her debut album "Dreaming in Different Colors" in 2019 as part of her music business and industry undergraduate degree capstone work and later released a second album, "Burning Letters" as part of her master's capstone in 2022. A third studio album is currently in the works.

From Mon Hills Records to "Burning Letters," Sarah Giles turned her WVU capstone into a growing discography. (Submitted Photo)

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Giles had already had a taste of Nashville before she moved there for good. She interned in the city with Dualtone Records in 2019 and said the experience showed her a new level of artistry and project management - but it also felt familiar in a way she didn't expect. Working with some of her favorite Americana and folk artists and a prominent independent label reminded her of what she loved about West Virginia music and local scenes, and of the hands-on, communal culture she found on campus.

So when she moved to Nashville in spring 2022 - what she describes as a "strange, hyper-competitive post-COVID moment" - she dove in fully.

"Jobs were so competitive," she said. "I applied to so many places, and it took a while for things to line up for me."

She arrived as a songwriter, performed for months, freelanced in artist services, and kept saying 'yes'to the work in front of her even as the plan kept changing. Then she met a booking agent who gave her the break she'd been working toward - a booking assistant gig at Independent Artist Group.

From Morgantown to Music City, Giles is applying her WVU experience on one of the industry's biggest stages. She also recently joined the faculty of her alma mater as an online instructor in the music business and industry program. (WVU Photo)

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"That job was like going back to school," she said, describing the pace and learning curve of agency life as well as its similarities to her time at Mon Hills.

Today, Giles works for management company KP Entertainment in Nashville as the team's coordinator. She describes herself as a connecting point - the person who can translate between the creative side and the logistical side.

"I feel like I've landed in a job that brings all my skills into one," she said. "And it just really aligns with my mission of helping artists turn their passion into something sustainable."

For students trying to picture themselves in the industry, her message is equal parts real and reassuring - stop waiting for a perfect formula. Learn the work. Learn the people. Be adaptable without losing your compass.

"There are no rules," Giles said. "As long as you're following your own intuition and what feels right, and utilizing all you've learned thus far, you're gonna be just fine. The industry will keep changing, that's not personal. Don't ever take it personally. Just hang on tight and ride it out."

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