AES PNW Meeting Report - The State of Audio Education in the Pacific Northwest

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Meeting held Thursday, November 12, 2015 - 7:30pm, Microsoft Research, Building 99, Redmond, WA

AES PNW Section Meeting Report The State of Audio Education in the Pacific Northwest Presenting a panel of Pacific Northwest Educators, including: Steve Barsotti - Art Institute of Seattle & Cornish College of the Arts Jim Elenteny - Shoreline Community College Steve Malott - Shoreline CC & Northwest University Marlie Pesek - Robert Lang Studios Joe Reineke - Seattle Academy of Recording Arts Lawrence Schwedler - DigiPen Institute of Technology

The audience is involved in discussing audio education in the Northwest.

The distinguished panel of educators begins the session.

PNW AES Vice Chair Steve Turnidge with our distinguished panel.

Video Recording of the meeting courtesy Microsoft Research

Audio recordings of the meeting:

96k mp3	32k mp3
Part 1 (65.9MB mp3) Part 2 (37.8MB mp3)	Part 1 (36.6MB mp3) Part 2 (26.5MB mp3)

Photos by Rick Chinn & Henry Honig, Audio Recording by Rick Chinn

The PNW Section's November meeting was a panel discussion moderated by Steve Turnidge, AES PNW Section vice-chair and featuring representatives of seven local audio education institutions:

Steve Barsotti - Art Institute of Seattle & Cornish College of the Arts
Jim Elenteny - Shoreline Community College
Steve Malott - Shoreline CC & Northwest University
Marlie Pesek - Robert Lang Studios
Joe Reineke - Seattle Academy of Recording Arts
Lawrence Schwedler - DigiPen Institute of Technology

The meeting was attended by 31 people, twelve of whom were AES members. Attendees included AES executive director Bob Moses who was accompanied by a student considering pursuing higher education in audio engineering.

After the panelists introduced themselves and briefly described the nature of their institution's audio education program, Steve Turnidge kicked off the discussion by posing the question, "Why would someone seek higher education in the field of audio engineering?"

The panel moved on to discuss the foundational relationship of music studies to audio engineering and the need for musical literacy in the audio profession.

The topic of internships was addressed by each panelist, with each one describing their institution's approach. The panel discussed the various roles interns may play in a studio setting, the essential requirement of people skills, and differences between academic and non-academic internships.

Extended discussion ensued concerning the recent and drastic changes affecting the music business as a whole, the professional recording studio business in particular, the emergence of the video game industry, and the explosion of new media and the accompanying need for original content. Consensus was reached among the panel members that this is an unpredictable but exciting time to be entering the field, rife with opportunity but still lacking a guaranteed roadmap to success.

As is the usual custom, following a brief break for refreshments and individual discussions, door prizes were awarded:

Courtesy of Ivan Tashev
- A license for Windows 10 Professional - Marlie Pesek
- A license for MS Office, Home & Student Edition - Greg Dixon
- T-Shirt, front reads "I'm here because somebody broke something" and the rear reads, "GEEK" - Jayney Wallich
Courtesy Steve Malott, Designing Sound by Andy Farnell - Rick Chinn
Courtesy Steve Turnidge, Burning Sky Records - Beautiful Escape CD - Henry Honig

Reported by Lawrence Schwedler, PNW Section Committee Member

Last Modified 11/19/2015 14:48:40, (dtl)