On a Wednesday morning in February, the jovial sounds of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker beamed through the monitors in Peabody’s Studio A as a piano student played for an audition video, captured by Sunanqi Huang, a first-year Recording Arts and Sciences master’s student. The Neve analog console she used is the same one used by engineers at London’s Abbey Road Studios and George Lucas’ Skywalker Sound.
Elsewhere on campus, Computer Music student Faisal Aletani was working on a composition for his private lessons with hip-hop production Associate Professor Wendel Patrick. And later that night, students in the Music for New Media: Film and Game Scoring program would gather in their classroom to watch a student play a video game, Red Dead Redemption 2, and analyze the music with faculty members Chris Kennedy, Colton Dodd, and Thomas Dolby, the famed musician who heads the program.
This is just a sampling of the goings-on in the Music Engineering and Technology Department, which is home to the Recording Arts and Sciences; Computer Music; Music for New Media: Film and Game Scoring; and Acoustical Studies programs. Students emerge from their studies ready to work in world-class recording and broadcast studios, to create sounds and music for popular video games, to score documentaries and movies, to compose and perform music for the concert stage utilizing the latest technologies, or to design the next great concert hall.
“These programs are all really different, and I think what’s nice is that both faculty and students can learn from each other. My colleagues and I all come from different backgrounds, and we all have our own specialties,” says Professor Scott Metcalfe, chair of the MET Department and director of Recording Arts and Sciences. “We design our programs with a potential career path in mind, but students can come in and start in the direction that best fits their goals and interests, and pivot to another area they may discover here that excites them more.”
The MET Department is also one of Peabody’s fastest-growing departments—with new faculty, classes, and degree programs added in recent years, and burgeoning enrollment: The number of students in MET majors has more than doubled since 2018 to around 150.
EXPANDING OFFERINGS
In Computer Music, new faculty members who work in multimedia formats allow students to traverse a wide range of electronic music possibilities.
Two years ago, Bryan Jacobs joined the faculty, bringing his expertise in musical robotics, which bridges the worlds of acoustic and electronic music through electromechanical instruments. Another new faculty member, multimedia sound artist Assistant Professor Lyn Goeringer, teaches students how to make videos for their audio projects.
“What sets Computer Music apart is that it is a focused electronic music composition program combined with the world-class academic rigor and musicianship of Peabody,” says Associate Professor Sam Pluta. “We’re creating exceptional electronic music artists.”
Music for New Media, which has about 40 students, will grow when it launches a master’s program in the fall, giving students advanced skills to tackle the fields of video game and film scoring.
“We’re composers for media. We’re not composers who only do games or only do films—we’re storytellers.”
“I don’t think there’s another program that’s as distinctly covering both film and games like we are,” says Assistant Professor Chris Kennedy. “We’re composers for media. We’re not composers who only do games or only do films—we’re storytellers.”
One floor below the New Media and Computer Music classrooms, Recording Arts and Sciences students in Studio B can work on a monitoring system compatible with Dolby Atmos, an immersive sound format being increasingly used for film, video games, and music streaming. Peabody was among the first higher education institutions in the country to offer the format to students in 2018 in the Music for New Media program. In 2019, the Recording Arts and Sciences studio was outfitted with the system thanks to a generous donation from Peabody Institute Advisory Board Member Larry Droppa, owner and president of Jessup, Maryland-based audio equipment manufacturer API. Computer Music also has a Dolby Atmos–compatible system in its own classroom.
Recording Arts and Sciences has also been expanded and refined. Students are required to couple their degree with instrumental performance, jazz, composition, or computer music for a double major. Historically, it was a five-year program, but since 2021, students are able to complete the double-major bachelor’s in four, with the option of earning a master’s in audio sciences (focusing on recording or acoustics) in a fifth year.
“If you take a smart musician who can handle the math and science behind it, and we train them how to use the recording equipment and work in studio environments, they’re going to be much more effective than somebody who has studied the engineering but doesn’t really understand music on a deeper level,” Metcalfe says.
“I don’t think there’s another program that’s as distinctly covering both film and games like we are,” says Assistant Professor Chris Kennedy. “We’re composers for media. We’re not composers who only do games or only do films—we’re storytellers.”
One floor below the New Media and Computer Music classrooms, Recording Arts and Sciences students in Studio B can work on a monitoring system compatible with Dolby Atmos, an immersive sound format being increasingly used for film, video games, and music streaming. Peabody was among the first higher education institutions in the country to offer the format to students in 2018 in the Music for New Media program. In 2019, the Recording Arts and Sciences studio was outfitted with the system thanks to a generous donation from Peabody Institute Advisory Board Member Larry Droppa, owner and president of Jessup, Maryland-based audio equipment manufacturer API. Computer Music also has a Dolby Atmos–compatible system in its own classroom.
Recording Arts and Sciences has also been expanded and refined. Students are required to couple their degree with instrumental performance, jazz, composition, or computer music for a double major. Historically, it was a five-year program, but since 2021, students are able to complete the double-major bachelor’s in four, with the option of earning a master’s in audio sciences (focusing on recording or acoustics) in a fifth year.
“If you take a smart musician who can handle the math and science behind it, and we train them how to use the recording equipment and work in studio environments, they’re going to be much more effective than somebody who has studied the engineering but doesn’t really understand music on a deeper level,” Metcalfe says.
EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING IN ACOUSTICS
In March 2023, after a four-year hiatus due to the COVID pandemic, the biannual Europe Concert Hall Field Study returned. Led by Acoustics Program Coordinator Associate Professor Ian Bryan Hoffman, the 10-day Spring Break trip took 19 Peabody students overseas to experience some of the most hallowed and innovative concert halls of Europe: the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, one of the most revered shoebox concert halls from the 19th century; the Berliner Philharmonie, built in 1963; and three 21st-century concert halls, in Reykjavik, Paris, and Hamburg.
The students, who are preparing to work in the growing fields of architectural acoustic design and consulting, acoustical product design, and audio systems design and integration, were able to compare and contrast the different concert halls, even different seats within the same halls, as they’d swap seating positions during intermission.
“How the recording engineer hears the room versus how the mechanical engineer hears the room is very different. Critical listeners understand how built form and built-in conditions relate to sound responses, or sonic signatures,” Hoffman says. “The Concert Hall Field Study vividly brings to life a lot of what we discuss in class. … Our students are not just looking at the quantitative, but the qualitative, how we hear music in a room, but then ultimately, how it relates to the human condition, the human listener.”
“Our students are not just looking at the quantitative, but the qualitative, how we hear music in a room, but then ultimately, how it relates to the human condition, the human listener.”
In March 2023, after a four-year hiatus due to the COVID pandemic, the biannual Europe Concert Hall Field Study returned. Led by Acoustics Program Coordinator Associate Professor Ian Bryan Hoffman, the 10-day Spring Break trip took 19 Peabody students overseas to experience some of the most hallowed and innovative concert halls of Europe: the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, one of the most revered shoebox concert halls from the 19th century; the Berliner Philharmonie, built in 1963; and three 21st-century concert halls, in Reykjavik, Paris, and Hamburg.
The students, who are preparing to work in the growing fields of architectural acoustic design and consulting, acoustical product design, and audio systems design and integration, were able to compare and contrast the different concert halls, even different seats within the same halls, as they’d swap seating positions during intermission.
“How the recording engineer hears the room versus how the mechanical engineer hears the room is very different. Critical listeners understand how built form and built-in conditions relate to sound responses, or sonic signatures,” Hoffman says. “The Concert Hall Field Study vividly brings to life a lot of what we discuss in class. … Our students are not just looking at the quantitative, but the qualitative, how we hear music in a room, but then ultimately, how it relates to the human condition, the human listener.”
A DIVERSITY OF TRAINING
Not only are these programs standouts in higher education, the comprehensive combination of offerings from the MET Department is a rarity under one institutional umbrella. And with a bevy of options for real-world in the recording studio experience, whether through required internships, work study, and/or various performance and composition opportunities, the MET Department feels a bit like a musical playground.
In the Computer Music program, which was founded in 1967, students can build instruments with motors and sensors, or effects pedals, in the maker space room. They can hold band practice in the Computer Music studio, which is outfitted with drums, amplifiers, and a mixing board. They can mix their projects in the mixing studio or make new beats in Patrick’s hip-hop classroom.
While they hone their skills as electronic composers, they’re also learning adjacent skills such as computer music programming and running live sound for concert productions. Students also have numerous performance opportunities within the Conservatory—from the Department Recital Series to the student-run VVaves Concert Series to the Laptop and Hip Hop ensembles.
In the Recording Arts and Sciences program, which started in 1983, students help record, live stream, and archive the approximately 1,000 live events that take place at Peabody each year. Its four studios are connected to all five of the institute’s concert halls and include tools such as a Lawo digital console in Studio C (which is the same console used by Saturday Night Live and The DiMenna Center for Classical Music in New York); video editing software; composition equipment such as synthesizers; and tape machines to restore archival material.
As they learn their way around recording consoles, students are also learning microphone techniques, and recording everything from rock to opera.
“We want them to be really well-versed in both the types of equipment they’re using, as well as the styles of music,” Metcalfe says. “They develop a sense of aesthetic for different styles … and then try to imagine what the ultimate goal is. What should the sonic canvas look like when we’re done with it? And how do we capture the instruments in a way that best represents the music on that canvas?”
Music for New Media students put their skills to work through collaborations with Johns Hopkins and Maryland Institute College of Art film students, as well as students from the University of Central Florida’s game development master’s program. Once a year, the Peabody Symphony Orchestra performs compositions by these students.
Not only are these programs standouts in higher education, the comprehensive combination of offerings from the MET Department is a rarity under one institutional umbrella. And with a bevy of options for real-world in the recording studio experience, whether through required internships, work study, and/or various performance and composition opportunities, the MET Department feels a bit like a musical playground.
In the Computer Music program, which was founded in 1967, students can build instruments with motors and sensors, or effects pedals, in the maker space room. They can hold band practice in the Computer Music studio, which is outfitted with drums, amplifiers, and a mixing board. They can mix their projects in the mixing studio or make new beats in Patrick’s hip-hop classroom.
While they hone their skills as electronic composers, they’re also learning adjacent skills such as computer music programming and running live sound for concert productions. Students also have numerous performance opportunities within the Conservatory—from the Department Recital Series to the student-run VVaves Concert Series to the Laptop and Hip Hop ensembles.
In the Recording Arts and Sciences program, which started in 1983, students help record, live stream, and archive the approximately 1,000 live events that take place at Peabody each year. Its four studios are connected to all five of the institute’s concert halls and include tools such as a Lawo digital console in Studio C (which is the same console used by Saturday Night Live and The DiMenna Center for Classical Music in New York); video editing software; composition equipment such as synthesizers; and tape machines to restore archival material.
As they learn their way around recording consoles, students are also learning microphone techniques, and recording everything from rock to opera.
“We want them to be really well-versed in both the types of equipment they’re using, as well as the styles of music,” Metcalfe says. “They develop a sense of aesthetic for different styles … and then try to imagine what the ultimate goal is. What should the sonic canvas look like when we’re done with it? And how do we capture the instruments in a way that best represents the music on that canvas?”
Music for New Media students put their skills to work through collaborations with Johns Hopkins and Maryland Institute College of Art film students, as well as students from the University of Central Florida’s game development master’s program. Once a year, the Peabody Symphony Orchestra performs compositions by these students.
DREAM JOBS
Graduates of the MET Department have landed jobs at the top of their fields at elite employers, all propelled by crucial knowledge and skills they gained at Peabody.
Most Acoustics Studies alumni have gone into acoustical consulting while others work on product development for companies such as Bose, Apple, Google, and Amazon. Three recent alumni work at Threshold Acoustics, including acoustics consultant Nick Dulworth (MA ’17), who recently completed a major project for Brown University—the Lindemann Performing Arts Center, which opened in October 2023.
The venue’s main hall has walls, a ceiling and floor that can be reconfigured to allow for five different kinds of spaces. Dulworth helped determine forms and materiality of the moveable architecture to accommodate these varied uses, which range from orchestral performance to immersive media installation.
The Computer Music program has indeed fostered an eclectic blend of teachers and performers, and current students have released “dope albums,” as Pluta put it, on independent record labels spanning a wide sonic spectrum. Qiujiang Levi Lu (MM ’23) now teaches music technology at the University of Pennsylvania and runs their own studio, while Garrett Eckl (MM ’22) was recently appointed to a tenure-track position at McNeese State University in Louisiana.
Recording Arts and Sciences graduate Teng Chen (BM ’15; MA ’16, Acoustical Studies) has been working at Saturday Night Live since 2018 as the pre-record and re-record music mixer and has worked on other major productions including the Grammys, Super Bowl, MTV Video Music Awards, and NBA All-Star Game.
Chen says her experience working in Peabody’s studios and running sound at the classical Tanglewood Music Festival, Brevard Music Center Summer Festival, and Banff Centre were vital. “That set the foundation for my whole career after I left Peabody, because I had already accumulated five years of working experience, even as a student,” she says.
Another Recording Arts and Sciences graduate, Karl Wingate (MA ’14), won his first Grammy in 2023 for engineering Steve Lacy’s Gemini Rights album.
Ashna Pathan (BM ’22, Music for New Media) now works as a composer’s assistant to film composer Michael Levine in Los Angeles. This job can include additional composition, orchestral score preparation, transcription, and more.
Dmytro Nebesh (BM ’22, Music for New Media), a sound designer at video game developer Firaxis Games, is credited in a recent update to Civilization VI, an award-winning turn-based strategy game that is part one of the best-selling and longest-running video game franchises. He was offered the job when he was still a student, and credits Peabody with giving him the technical and professional skills to succeed in the field.
“It was a lot about building the confidence in ourselves,” Nebesh says. “I learned a wealth of knowledge that I use still every day at work. And now I just make sounds for video games, and it’s awesome.”