Daria Dzurik, singer, songwriter and steel pan player in Daria and the Hip Drops, is one of many Florida State University music graduates who find themselves drawn to New Orleans. Geographically, Dzurik explains, the three closest music cities to FSU and Tallahassee are New Orleans, Miami and Atlanta.

“New Orleans gets a large chunk of the FSU College of Music folks,” she said. “There’s tons of people here from my class...