Dallas Crane and Ron Saltmarsh, School of Music
Studio Orchestra Club was successfully initiated and its first stages of implementation were successful. We were able to accomplish the following goals:
- Establish Studio Orchestra Club as an Academic Association under the Commercial Music program. This lends official recognition to the group, as well as funding from the Commercial Music program (ideally, see below). This also allowed Studio Orchestra Club to schedule room usage as an independent unit, instead of relying of faculty.
- Record various projects, including two film scores, a graduate audition and a concept album. Link to the audio files: https://soundcloud.com/studio-orchestra-club.
- Create a growing roster of BYU musicians who were interested in becoming involved.
- Establish and execute a plan of action for professional quality recording sessions, including setup, takedown, proper recording and production protocol, breaks, musician focus and accuracy, and catering.
- Be managed and run entirely by students. This includes all music review, mixing, scheduling, contracting, communication, and development of protocol.
- Publish materials related to the recording of these projects, including behind-the-scenes video and photo footage, interviews, and online publications.
- Establish a brand of excellence, professionalism, and homegrown student-led organization.
Studio Orchestra Club had challenges that limited its growth and ability to provide unique opportunities for BYU students. These included:
- Faculty – frequently uninvolved and uninformed of club dealings, even with multiple levels of communication. Often, we were held back from scheduling recording sessions because the faculty was unaware of our having fulfilled all requirements, even with having received notification of such. Other problems include lack of financial support from the sponsoring department, reduced support and encouragement to students who might have considered participating, and so forth.
- Support – faculty from within and without Studio Orchestra Club were often skeptical of its ability to accomplish its goals. This led to poor opinions of the club, as well as dissuading comments as to participation, to be spread among the music department. These harmful and misinformed comments are attributed to Studio Orchestra Club’s unparalleled success and innovative approach, where similar attempts in the past have failed. Many of these individuals have since spoken highly of Studio Orchestra Club’s forward thinking and vision and have encouraged students to become involved.
- Lack of preparation – While working to record the music for a BYU animation, the composer failed to follow protocol established by the club pertaining to proper score and click track preparation, on top of basic guidelines of quality. This led to multiple cancellations of sessions, reduced desire to participate on the part of the orchestra, and ultimately the cancellation of the project on the part of the composer. Fallback from this included harmful comments by the composer to BYU Animation, which sparked a correction on the part of Studio Orchestra Club and resulted in damaged relationships between the two departments. Had proper protocol been followed, Studio Orchestra Club might have been more involved in BYU Animation projects.
- Funding – While the funding was sufficient to sustain the president and provide time to establish rosters, schedule sessions, and produce sessions, more funding is needed to catapult the group to its planned potential. These expenditures include funding for printing of music, advertising of the group (including online presence), and higher quality food and benefits (including guest visitors and field trips) to draw in more musicians. If you are interested in continuing your support, please contact StudioOrchestraClub@gmail.com.
Studio Orchestra Club also provided learning opportunities. These lessons included:
- Details of managing large recording sessions pertaining to musician placement, engraving shortcuts and preferences, and communication. The candor needed to correct and encourage musicians in order to perform effectively and comfortably.
- The importance of being selective with projects and students, and learning to spot possible participants or ideas that would be detrimental or fatal to positive, professional outcomes.
- Recording session details specific to each participant’s field of study and unique to the atmosphere provided by Studio Orchestra Club.
- The effects of misinformation and bias relative to innovative and groundbreaking concepts in an academic environment. While academia purports to support new ideas, the scope of their support and the range of encouraged concepts outside of dated, pre-established methods is dismissively minimal.
- The unity and excitement that stems from successfully completing a project. Studio Orchestra Club expresses its gratitude for the support that made its inception and initial implementation successful, and looks forward to the plethora of upcoming victories that are in store.
Sincerely,
Dallas Crane
President
Studio Orchestra Club
StudioOrchestraClub@gmail.com