Martin Atkins speaks to York students during fine arts week

On day one of Fine Arts Week, Martin Atkins came to York for fine arts week to talk to students about what it takes to get started in the music industry. He talked about how his career came to be how it is today by what he went through during his time as a student in school and the encounters he had in the music industry.

One of the big things Atkins talked about was how his career got shaped into what it is now with some very interesting facts about himself. He started in the music industry and has now become a music teacher. He has accomplished from playing with a wide variety of different music bands showing anything is possible if you believe in yourself.

Freshman Tati Kranov talks about what was the most interesting thing that Martin Atkins talked about.

“I think all that he has done throughout his life because it was a lot and it was cool to like see all of the other things he could accomplish like when he said that he was in a lot of bands and helped contribute to those and that he had a museum and was a teacher despite having bad grades it showed you can do anything if you put your mind to it”, Kranov said.

Atkins went on during his presentation to give the students a lot of good advice when he gives an example of how you should always treat other people how you would want to be treated by telling the students how he got into a fight with someone he did not like and later they became great friends in the end.

Freshman Margret Pas reflected on Atkins performance. 

“Probably be nice to everybody because you never know where that can get you even if they are not nice to you should always be kind to everyone,” Pas said. “Like he was saying how he got into a fist fight with somebody cause he did not bring him cold enough drinks which brought him closer to the person and like got him further in life because he was friends with somebody that he could have made an enemy.”

With Atkins giving his great advice to the students, he then went on to give other students a person to look up to in the music industry when it is a passion for some students wanting to make music. He gave them advice on what it takes to be a very good musician then what they are now by making better improvements to their music, which made this experience really useful for the students who listened in on Atkins presentation .

J Rodriguez, freshman, gave his insight on what his takeaway was from Martin Atkins which was, “To do unnecessary things that was really useful because like I make music too and it’s like. It makes sense to kinda go above and beyond just to be a little better like you don’t even have to do it. Just if you do it you will just get better and I think it was pretty useful”, Rodriguez said.