Recording Arts and Technologies M.F.A. students excelled through a very challenging year of creative production despite restrictions imposed by COVID-19.
Classes were conducted remotely over Zoom using multi-iPhone-camera and high definition- audio streaming tools put into place during summer 2020. Hands-on studio classes were conducted online with student recording sessions taking place on campus.
• Christopher Lippincott completed an outstanding final project that was an original film score, composing and recording piano and strings for No Country for Old Men.
• Michael Ryan composed, produced, recorded, and mixed a folk-rock concept album centered around his experience of the pandemic.
• Dustin Painter, selected as this year’s Outstanding M.F.A. Student, completed his final project of interactive immersive audio for gaming. Painter and Gabe Pacino were selected as ambassadors for AdamAudio, a manufacturer of studio loudspeakers.
• The M.F.A. program began an accelerated bachelor’s-to master’s (ABM) program, which allows top undergraduates to begin the M.F.A. while completing their bachelor’s degrees.
• M.F.A. students recorded and mixed nine original songs written by undergraduate songwriting students utilizing the talents of professional American Federation of Musicians session players from Nashville. The sessions occurred in Studio B and were livestreamed over Zoom so student songwriters and engineers could collaborate online in real time with the pro players in the studio.
• The M.F.A. also underwent a very successful program self-study and program review conducted by New York University’s Agnieszka Roginska.
• Michael Fleming and Bill Crabtree were co-chairs of the AES Conference on Audio Education July 22–24. Bill Crabtree’s “video” studio
The Leading Edge 