After years of producing performances in the studio and classroom, Stevo Evans, program director of commercial music studies, took his work to Orlando, Fla., for Disney’s annual holiday special, “The Wonderful World of Disney: Holiday Spectacular.”
Evans served as co-musical director and producer for Bebe Rexha’s performance. He handled the arrangement and production for her segment while meeting creative, technical and network standards.
“My job is to create the beats and to make the music that supports the artists while they perform these Christmas carols on television,” Evans said. “This year, 2025, I did it with Bebe Rexha, who’s an incredible massive pop star.”
Evans worked on Disney holiday broadcasts for six consecutive years. This year, he stepped into a leadership role as a producer and built a team of musicians, producers and engineers to deliver the final product.
“This year, I flew to Orlando and I was on site performing duties. Manning the production on the ground front, supervising, handling talent management and getting my hands dirty with the production in real time so it was a great opportunity to see everything kind of materialize from idealization to full production.”
Commercial music majors J.T. Wright, Christian Edwards and Christian Austin helped with pre-production as part of their professional development. They contributed deliverables that aired in a live network production, reflecting opportunities available to students pursuing commercial music careers.
“An additional value add was watching students who hadn’t had this kind of opportunity before at CBU really put a feather in their cap in real time, and my hope is that our students in commercial music in the School of Performing Arts and CBU as an institution just recognize how unique of an opportunity it is to get that kind of credit on your resume in college, let alone as an adult,” Evans said.
Evans said job searching in music and entertainment often looks different from traditional industries. While some aspiring professionals use sites like LinkedIn or Glassdoor, productions rarely post listings for roles like producers or singers.
Evans said experiences like the Disney holiday special helped students picture what a career in entertainment could look like. He compared the opportunity to looking through a telescope.
“It’s almost like looking through a device that helps you to see something that is thousands of miles away, millions of miles away, but have it seem so tangible, right?,” Evans said. “So what I think this does is it provides more of a glimpse or a snapshot into what jobs are available, cause I think that’s one of my most passionate convictions in this role.”
The special aired nationally Dec. 1, 2025. Rexha performed “Last Christmas” and “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” supported by contributions from CBU’s commercial music program for “The Wonderful World of Disney: Holiday Spectacular.” Evans’ work on the project showed how professional experience can open doors and encourage students.
