When Michael Lau told his classmates at Berklee College of Music how many people he graduated with at Sachem they were floored. Lau graduated from Sachem in 1986 with more than 1,600 students, one of the largest classes in district history.
“They were envious,” he said, “but I felt very privileged to have the education that I did. The biggest asset is the amount of opportunities and programs the students have and the best thing they can do is take advantage of it all.”
Lau, a music executive with decades of experience in music publishing, production and development, among other things, learned first hand about music, entertainment and the arts at Sachem.
“The music program was one of the top in the country,” he said. “Multiple bands and orchestras, an award-winning marching band and Advanced Placement music courses.”
Lau was also a gifted gymnast and a strong competitor under legendary Sachem boys gymnastics coach Ken Freidheim. He was also in rock band, jazz band, a number of academic teams and organizations and helped with the tech crew of the marching band.
Today Lau, who still resides in Sachem with his family, is the Chief Operating Office of Round Hill Music in New York City. He spent seven years at Warner/Chappell Music serving as Senior Director of Creative IT and Marketing Development and also served as Director of Strategic Marketing.
At Warner/Chappell, he helped build the advertising and video game division by pitching and licensing the company’s vast music catalog. He also developed branding and marketing strategies, developed and deployed interactive promo kits and was the designer of the company’s creative pitching system.
His resume is chock full of interesting highlights, including serving as music supervisor for CBS’ coverage of the 1994 and 1998 Winter Olympics, Cartoon Network’s “Courage the Cowardly Dog,” and Scholastic’s feature film “Clifford’s Big Movie”.
For the Olympics gig, Lau chose every piece of music that aired and spent a month in Norway and Japan, respectively, for each of the games.
“I used my knowledge of music and how it worked against picture and media and forecasted how it could be used and selected,” he said.
At Round Hill Music, a relatively new company that launched in 2011, he has the chance to work with another Sachem alum Neil Gillis, who serves as President. Lau has helped build the company with Gillis from an infrastructure and administrative perspective. The company has a music catalog with songs from The Beatles to Aerosmith.
“It’s been a pretty fun ride so far,” said Lau, who is also involved with royalties, IT, the company catalog, acquisition, system development and much more.
Had it not been for his vast palette of experiences at Sachem in music and other extra-curricular activities he may not have enrolled at Berklee where majored in professional music and took a core of classes in the business of music, theory and composition.
“If you have something that you really love and believe in, follow it,” he said. “There will be a way to make a living someway. Ignore the people who say you can’t do it. Believe in yourself and believe in who you are. You have to trust in your gut and ego.”
-Words by Chris R. Vaccaro