Alumni Event to be hosted at Manila in Oshkosh

For over four decades, the UWO Music Industry Program has been providing an outstanding education to students. The exceptional faculty and staff in the Music Department have helped to pave the way for countless successful careers by creating and maintaining a climate of excellence. Of course, this is also due to the vision and ingenuity of the program’s founder, Wally Messner. I’m pleased to say that the program continues to be strong and has very bright future ahead.

During this transitional time, the program has a major opportunity not only to work with our current students and recent grads, but also to rekindle and build relationships with alumni. Our graduates are the solid foundation that this program is built upon, and the help and support that I have already received from alumni has been enormously helpful.

In celebration of this wonderful history, the UW Oshkosh Music Industry Program is bringing together alumni and friends for a night of great music and reunion at Manila Resto in Downtown Oshkosh. The event starts at 9:30pm on Friday, October 21, 2016.

The evening will feature an acoustic music set by horn-driven rock band, Pam The Bear (featuring UWO students), as well as a cash bar for drinks and appetizers. We hope to have a big turnout!

Program Alum on Team that Wins a "Creative Arts Emmy Award"

Music Industry program alum, Bill Higley, was part of a team that recently won an "Outstanding Sound Mixing" award for the Amazon Studios show, "Mozart in the Jungle". Bill is an ADR mixer for the show, but emphasized that the award included re-recording mixers Andy D'Addario and Gary Gegan, fellow ADR mixer Chris Navarro, as well as production mixer, Thomas Varga.

Bill with members of the Mozart In The Jungle Mix Team: Gary Gegan, Chris Navarro and Thomas Varga

It is always exciting and special to see the phenomenal work that program graduates are doing in so many forms. He told us that it has been a pleasure to work with the team and he was honored to have been a part of the award. We thank Bill for sharing his accomplishment, and look forward to continuing to follow him and the successes of other alumni!

Gearing up for the Fall 2016 School Year

The Fall semester is ready to begin, and we're all set for another busy stretch of classes and studio sessions. There's a lot to be excited about, including:

• An upgraded Pro Tools studio with new accessories and acoustic paneling
• A large incoming Freshman class of Recording Tech and Music Business Majors
• Continued strong enrollment of Music Industry Minors
• Full enrollment in the Recording Tech and Audio for Video classes
• New equipment for live concert multi-track recording in the Recital Hall
• A big group of students in "Care & Repair" class to continue to make improvements and upgrades

We are looking forward to continued growth, student projects, music performances, internship opportunities, and student successes!

Students Compose and Play a Jazz Fusion Piece at Convocation

During the second half of the semester of our "Session & Mixdown" class, the students agreed that they wanted to compose and record a piece of music as a class. We quickly learned that this can be quite a challenge with so many people and different ideas involved. It didn't take long, however, for an idea to take form. Based on a theme composed by pianist Ashton Boyd, the song formed into a jazz fusion piece. Bassist Tyler Dworak titled the piece "Out There", and helped to shape the story of an astronaut lost in outer space.

As the recording progressed over several weeks, the group then had the idea to perform the piece during the final convocation of the semester. Although we knew that it would be a short timeframe to pull together the live performance, they took on the challenge and made it happen!

The studio recording is soon to come. Here's a recording of the convocation performance: