[034] MTSU Recording-Industry Students' Creativity Is Paying Off

MTSU RECORDING-INDUSTRY STUDENTS’ CREATIVITY IS PAYING OFF
3 Receive API Visionary Scholarships from Audio Products Manufacturer

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 29, 2010
EDITORIAL CONTACT: Gina E. Fann, 615-898-5385

(MURFREESBORO)—Three MTSU recording-industry students are getting some financial support for their creative visions as the latest recipients of the prestigious API Visionary Scholarship.
Taylor Bray, a junior from Columbia, S.C., and senior Jay Yaskin of Las Vegas received $2,000 each, while Nashvillian Ben Poff, who’s working toward his Master of Fine Arts degree in recording arts and technology, received $1,000 from Jessup, Md.-based Automated Processes Inc.
API is a leading analog audio products manufacturer whose 48-channel API Vision stereo/surround sound console was installed in Studio A in the Bragg Communication Building in 2009. The studio is designed to accommodate the needs of audio recording for traditional music production, as well as video and film, and includes a studio, control room, isolation booth, mastering/observation lab and machine room. Some API equipment is in RIM’s Studio B, and students also are able to check out an API module for mobile use.
The Visionary Scholarship, open only to students at universities using API equipment, is “designed to foster creativity and excellence for the pro audio industry’s next generation of sound engineers,” the company said.
“My whole goal is to be making money at this before I get out of school, so this is one more opportunity to get my name out there,” Yaskin, who lives in Franklin, Tenn., and is preparing to graduate in 2011, said with a laugh.
“I had just finished an analog project with my roommates the previous semester that included horns, electric violins, two vocalists and an analog synthesizer to make bizarre sounds. The scholarship application said to show how to bridge the gap between analog and digital, so we grabbed it and overnighted it.”
The other three scholarships went to students at the University of Michigan, State University of New York at Purchase and New York University’s Clive Davis School of Recording at the Tisch School of the Arts. Each of the six winners submitted an essay and optional recorded material for review by API.
“The people at API said they could tell that our faculty were proactive in encouraging our students to apply,” said Professor Daniel Pfeifer, who teaches courses in audio engineering and technology, studio production and studio administration and coordinates the undergraduate and graduate audio internships for the RIM department.
“This was the first time we were eligible to apply. It’s really very unusual for a manufacturer to do something like this. The altruism on their part is awesome.”
Gordon Smart, managing director of API, told the student winners in a congratulatory e-mail that “while all of the entries reflected a high degree of talent, creativity and professionalism, your work (both essay and production materials) was recognized as superior and noteworthy.”
Pfeifer, who just returned from a seminar in Maine where he trained users on an API console, said he and fellow RIM professor Bill Crabtree have freelanced for API and written user manuals for the company, too.
“The university wants us to have partnerships, and this is the kind of thing that provides both a literal payoff for students, with scholarships, and a payoff with access to world-class equipment,” he said. “It’s pretty amazing for our students to get recognition from the industry like this.”
Yaskin and his peers won’t be waiting long for more industry acclaim. He’s been working with a songwriting team this summer, mixing and mastering tracks on demos, and recently learned that Disney bought one of the songs. The song that won him an API Visionary Scholarship, “City at Night,” will be available on iTunes soon, performed by “A Silent Circus.”
“I didn’t even know about MTSU before,” he said. “I was visiting some friends in Nashville and saw how hard-core the RIM program was, and that was it.”
For more information about MTSU’s Department of Recording Industry, one of the largest and best equipped in the country, visit http://recordingindustry.mtsu.edu.

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IN BRIEF: Three MTSU recording-industry students are getting some financial support for their creative visions as the latest recipients of the prestigious API Visionary Scholarship.
Taylor Bray, a junior from Columbia, S.C., and senior Jay Yaskin of Las Vegas received $2,000 each, while Nashvillian Ben Poff, who’s working toward his Master of Fine Arts degree in recording arts and technology, received $1,000 from Jessup, Md.-based Automated Processes Inc. “The people at API said they could tell that our faculty were proactive in encouraging our students to apply,” said Professor Daniel Pfeifer, who teaches audio courses and coordinates the undergraduate and graduate audio internships for the RIM department. “This was the first time we were eligible to apply. It’s really very unusual for a manufacturer to do something like this. The altruism on their part is awesome.”

For MTSU news and information, visit www.mtsunews.com.

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