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February 9, 2012 DAKOTA COUNTY TRIBUNE BUSINESS WEEKLY
Dakota Arts
Lakeville drummer is on a roll JP Bouvet wins national Guitar Center Drum Off by Andrew Miller DAKOTA COUNTY TRIBUNE
The trophies keep piling up for JP Bouvet. The 2007 Lakeville South High School graduate’s skills on the drum kit earned him a first-place finish in the Guitar Center Drum Off on Jan. 14 in Los Angeles. Bouvet bested 4,500 other drummers from across the country as he battled his way through local and regional competitions on the way to winning the Drum Off finals last month. His prize package is a king’s bounty: $25,000, a custom drumset and other gear, three days recording time at a New York City studio, an article about him in Modern Drummer magazine, and a video episode featuring him on DrumChannel.com that ends with Bouvet jamming with Terry Bozzio, former drummer for Frank Zappa. “The most valuable prize from the competition is the publicity,� said Bouvet, who since high school has been studying at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. “My name is posted all over Guitar Center’s magazines and catalogs and website, and the YouTube video will reach a
Businesswomen from Page 1B
For those looking for a confirmation that hard work achieves major success, look no further than the different paths of Theresa Wise and Jamie Dahlen. Dahlen talks about the long nights and early mornings it took to turn the Best Western Premier Nicollet Inn into the sparkling jewel
File photo
Lakeville native JP Bouvet, seen here playing a V-drum set (programmable electronic drums), earned top honors at two drum competitions in California last month, including a first-place finish at the Guitar Center Drum Off finals. The win netted him $25,000, a feature article about him in Modern Drummer magazine and a host of other prizes. couple hundred thousand views before too long.� Riding high on his victory in Los Angeles, Bouvet headed to Anaheim, Calif., the following weekend to compete in the Roland V Drum international competition. He’d earned a berth in the event by winning the V Drum national finals held in Las
Vegas last fall, and this competition pitted him against 15 other drummers from around the world. V Drums, or programmable electronic drums, allow drummers to use MP3s and perform solos that transcend the typical flailing snare-andbass-drum theatrics. “My solo included jungle animal sounds, metal guitar,
a choir, and it ended with pieces of the Star Spangled Banner interrupted by dubstep breakdowns,� said Bouvet, who placed second at the Anaheim event, finishing behind a drummer from Norway. Bouvet is now looking forward to a tour of Turkey this month with his band Helicopria, a rock quartet
consisting of fellow Berklee music students. His other band, The Super Pilots, a jazz-funk group that includes Bouvet’s Berklee classmate and 2008 Apple Valley High School graduate Mike Linden, will be making a stop in Burnsville this August to perform at the Art & All That Jazz Festival in Nicollet Commons Park.
Bouvet blogs about drumming and offers drum lessons on his website, www. jpbouvetmusic.com. To view a video about his experience at the Guitar Center Drum Off, visit www.youtube.com/ JPBouvet.
it has become in Burnsville – the site of this year’s awards breakfast. Wise, senior vice president and chief information officer at Delta, also talks about the days and nights needed to merge the millions of information technology records of Northwest and Delta Air Lines by creating thousands of subprojects with IT workers in Eagan.
It’s a mind-boggling effort that she says was made seamless to customers by the work ethic of their team. Carrie Guarrero knows the value in breaking lofty goals into small tasks as a life coach, in addition to being the senior vice president and regional manager for Cornerstone Mortgage Company. She says she couldn’t imaging juggling her work
and family demands (she has seven children) without the accountability of a life coach. Connie Braziel says she likes to stay behind the scenes at the Minnesota Zoo, which is an easy thing to do since the animals steal the show. But she’s in charge of daily operations for a zoo that has shattered attendance records in recent years while undertaking ambitious projects to inject new life into Dakota County’s most popular attraction. Terri Shepherd, founder and CEO Xact Resources Inc., shows that keeping one eye on the business and the other on the outside world can result in finding new niches and even a second company. Shepherd’s firm is experiencing rapid growth because she was not statisfied with standing still and instead looking for the next opportunity. Chris Holtan of Lancet Software Development Inc. proves that humor in the
workplace can have some serious positive impact. From the outset, Lancet’s founders made fun an equal partner with hard work as they dubbed themselves the company’s “flounders� to communicate their effort of “floundering around� to try anything to see what works. Holtan also talked about the company’s “Wall of Greatness� where profound (and not-so-profound) quotes are pasted up for all to “admire.� Sona Mehring’s story is pure inspiration for those who think they have a great idea. She says her CaringBridge idea, which was born from a friend’s crisis, was the first social network. She says she couldn’t have imagined the nonprofit would become what it is today – a hug for the world that is used by millions across the planet. While many women have encountered challenges in the workplace because of their gender, Sunny Bhakta,
owner of Comfort InnLakeville, has overcome dual discrimination. I was disappointed to learn that, as owner of her first hotel in Owatonna, she faced racism in the form of insults and rejected business because she happened to come from another part of the world. She said she also faced gender discrimination from the outset in Lakeville as employees resigned because they wouldn’t work for a woman. That goes to show that we still have a long way to go to overcome ignorance. These are just a few of the lessons our winners have taught me. They are very deserving of these awards, and it seems a small measure of gratitude for all they have given back to the community.
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Andrew Miller is at andrew. miller@ecm-inc.com.
Tad Johnson is at editor. thisweek@ecm-inc.com.