MuTechTeacherTalk Christopher H Jones

I have a conversation with Lawrence Grey founder of the Young Producers Group based in Los Angeles. YPG provides curriculum, resources, and professional development for school systems and teachers who want to offer music technology courses for their students but don't know quite where to start.

Dr. Langol and I have a wide-ranging discussion about the music education program at Berklee, recent trends in music technology and education and what the future may hold.

Meaghan O’Connor-Vince teaches at Barnstable High School in Hyannis, Massachusetts. She is very active in the Massachusetts MEA and has several articles published in the Massachusetts Journal for Music Education. After being hired as an assistant band director, she was faced with having to teach a music technology course. She developed her own curriculum for her students and within a few years was teaching music technology exclusively with an expanded curriculum that included advanced music technology courses and courses on composing for hip hop, rock, and pop music. She is in demand as a speaker across the country for music education conferences and she has two instructional units published on the MusicFirst Classroom platform.

Jason Freeman is a Professor of Music at Georgia Tech and Chair of the School of Music. His artistic practice and scholarly research focus on using technology to engage diverse audiences in collaborative, experimental, and accessible musical experiences. He also develops educational interventions in K-12, university, and MOOC environments that broaden and increase engagement in STEM disciplines through authentic integrations of music and computing. His music has been performed at Carnegie Hall, exhibited at ACM SIGGRAPH, published by Universal Edition, broadcast on public radio’s Performance Today, and commissioned through support from the National Endowment for the Arts. Freeman’s wide-ranging work has attracted over $10 million in funding from sources such as the National Science Foundation, Google, and Turbulence. It has been disseminated through over 80 refereed book chapters, journal articles, and conference publications. Freeman received his B.A. in music from Yale University and his M.A. and D.M.A. in composition from Columbia University.

Chris Rickwood is a versatile and dynamic composer, with a flair for creating musical scores that capture the essence of video game worlds. With a career spanning over two decades, Rickwood has honed his craft to create immersive soundscapes that are as diverse as they are memorable. Having composed music for a wide range of titles, from the epic battles of Smite, Paladins, and Tribes: Ascend, to the whimsical landscapes of Brawlhalla, Jetpack Fighter, and Adventure Time Battle Party, Rickwood is no stranger to the challenges of game scoring. His past work also includes Madden NFL 12, Orcs Must Die! series, Ghostbusters: The Videogame, and Age of Empires Online, to name just a few.

Rickwood has contributed his expertise to the game audio community as a founding member of the Game Developers Association in Georgia and by serving on the Advisory Board for the Game Audio Network Guild and the Board of Governors for the National Association of Recording Arts and Sciences.

Learn about the newly rebranded and retooled podcast and meet my new 14-year-old Production and Social Media Manager!