Campus Celeb: Katie Pearlman

Year: 2015

Hometown: Los Angeles, California

Major/Minor: Philosophy major with a minor in music

What are you involved in on campus/in New Orleans?

I host an open mic night at Hillel that for me, sort of serves as a hub for a lot of student musicians. I’m the Tulane student ambassador for an organization called Grammy U, a networking association for students aspiring to be in the music industry. I have my own band and we perform occarionally. We recently opened for Naughty Professor and Earphunk at the Howling Wolf. I’m a hostess at a dope restaurant called Shaya and I’m also in Kappa Kappa Gamma. 

When did you start singing/performing?

I’d say it started around age 7. I did musical theatre after school at a place called YADA (youth academy of dramatic arts). That’s what really helped me to become comfortable on stage. I continued with that for about seven years.

What are your plans post graduation?

I recently decided that I’m moving back to LA to pursue songrwiting. I have a mentor that I have been working with long distance who has been workshopping my songs with me. He’s really awesome. I think that’s a good way for me to get my foot in the door and to also be my own artist. While I’d love to stay and perform in NOLA I think LA is the right more for now. 

If you could…

Be a musical instrument: I think I’d want to be some sort of horn. Maybe a trumpet, that’d be cool. They’ve just got so much soul.

Perform with any artist (dead or alive): Stevie Wonder. THAT would be a fun show. 

Go back in time: Laurel Canyon in the late 60’s early 70’s so I could hang and write music with Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne, The Eagles, and all those homies.

Do you have anything left to do on your NOLA bucket list?

Oh yeah. I gotta see the plantations, eat at a shit ton of restaurants, drink my way through some hip bars, end my nights at some dive bars in the bywater, and put my toes in the Mississippi river mud. I also want to take the ferry to Algiers point. I have yet to do that!

Favorites

Movie: Harold and Maude

TV Show: Arrested Development and Friends

Book: Tuesdays with Morrie 

Artist: right now is probably Lauryn Hill, it’s always changing

Food: Chicken Curry

Thing about Tulane: I’d say the people. The fact that a collective student body in 2015 can bond over funk/blues/jazz music is pretty cool. Doesn’t matter if you’re a sorority girl or a jazz cat we will run into each other at Galactic, or Frenchmen for that matter! 

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