As of yesterday, I am the new Phil.
In a tense, embittered, deeply sectarian 30 second meeting with the Dean, I was officially made the Director of Music Technology for the APU School of Music. The position comes with, among other things, new business cards, and the long-sought respect of my peers that I so deeply crave. Well, for sure the business cards, at least.
It’s easy to forget, now, what a visionary Phil was when he started building this program. In the early 1990’s, Phil was insisting that facility with music software was going to be an essential skill for musicians, regardless of their particular emphasis. He fought the uphill battle of getting all of our faculty teaching theory, arranging, and orchestration using notation software, which gave us the ability to hear, analyze, and modify student projects live in class. Because of his efforts, we were one of the first programs in the country to make musical technology a required part of the curriculum for all music majors. He pushed hard to make laptop leases mandatory for the school of music, so that we are still one of the few programs in the country where every music student has an identical setup, and uses music software as an integral part of their
writing and arranging.
Those of us who teach here take all of these things for granted - we just assume that any student who has a question about brass voicings for big band can simply email us the file they are working on, and we can both have copies open to modify and change, that we can be hearing exactly the same thing while we are working. We take for granted that we can ask our jazz piano students to sequence their own rehearsal combo to practice 12 bar blues solos. We assume that our education students can create and print technical exercises to help the community children who are part of the youth music academy that we run. We don’t even pause when suggested that our composition students email a copy of the file they are working on to the string section leader, to get suggestions for bowings - we know they are using the same laptop and software, and will be able to view each other’s work without difficulty.
None of these things happened by accident. They are all the result of Phil’s visionary efforts to make music technology a core part of our curriculum, so that when our students graduate, no matter what their degree or emphasis within music, they find themselves unexpectedly equipped for the present state of the industry. I was the beneficiary of that foresight as a student, and I am the beneficiary of that effort as a faculty member.
Thank you, Phil, for building this program, and for trusting me to carry it forward.
Congrats.
Oh, he’ll still be around, but he’s going to focus more on the composition side of the program. He used to be the only person around running 3 things - commercial music, music technology, and music theory. He’s successfully handed off commercial music and music tech, so now he can invest himself in developing our new graduate programs in theory and composition.
wait, chad, where did your comment go? the one where you asked if he would be retiring? Am I going crazy?
Hehe…
I posted: “Did he retire? Or is he going to be around to harass you?!”
I then realized that comment was a flyby, and not at all encompassing the wholeness of what I was thinking… so here goes.
1. Phil is as responsible for my love of music, computers, electronic music, and music theory, as any other human alive. My hat is off to him, and my gratitude is towards him.
2. Mike - this is a huge honor. Don’t eff it up. :)
3. Now that I know that Phil is still going to be around, I’d like to encourage him to shake his head is silent disapproval every time Mike makes a suggestion, or inhales.
regarding #3, he already does that. He calls it “mentoring”.
Major congratulations! I can’t say I’m the least bit surprised. You’re gonna’ be fantastic!
congrats dude! we’ll have to celebrate in your office with some “coffee”
You know what I’m excited for. Those business cards… yes… ‘Assistant Music Direc…’ sorry, ‘Assistant to the Director of Music Technology’.
Ok. Forgive me. Back to correcting those projects.
Michael: Congratulations, I am sure it is well deserved!
Huzzah! I can’t say I’m surprised, except when I think about knowing you when you were 17.
Many congratulations, my friend.
Brilliant, Michael! Make sure they spell “extraordinaire” correctly on those cards, mister.
It’s not the spelling I’m worried about, it’s that they might run out of glitter ink before they finish all 5,000!
Luckily I have a few extra vats of glitter ink lying around from charting “Shout To the Lord” for American Idol. I’ll have them shipped to APU.
I appreciate it, Ash, but will that leave you with enough ink left over to send out your Hello Kitty tea party invitations?
Hey. Whoa. Hello Kitty is legit, man. Joke about anything, but not that. NOT HELLO KITTY.
Heard last night on Comedy Central:
“When you use glitter, you have to be prepared for a commitment. It’s gonna stay with you awhile. Glitter is the herpes of craft supplies.”
Wow.
Mike, with you running this program and me teaching, we’re going to run this whole thing right into the crapper.
HAHA!
Wait, they’re letting you teach?
This place is basically just a glorified Jr. College now, isn’t it. Man, I’m too depressed to even order my new business cards now.
Chad –
That’s Demetri Martin. He’s frickin’ hilarious. You can find his stuff all over the intertubes.
Yes. I’m teaching Arranging I. Don’t ask me how it happened. Shack must have been preeeeeeeety desperate.
I’m pretty sure they asked Sophia to teach that, but she’s down at USC those days.
that’s great news, Mike. I’m really proud of you.
Congrats Mike!
MICHAEL!!! Are you, like, all grown up now???
oh, hells no.
word.