{"id":8653,"date":"2023-03-23T17:51:37","date_gmt":"2023-03-23T17:51:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/?p=8653"},"modified":"2023-03-20T18:30:51","modified_gmt":"2023-03-20T18:30:51","slug":"music-by-students-for-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/23\/music-by-students-for-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Music by students for students"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

School of Music releases two\u00a0student recorded albums<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Texas A&M University-Kingsville School of Music recently released two albums within the last year, becoming one of the few schools to record and release albums in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The School of Music\u2019s Jazz Combo released an album titled \u201cDendrology,\u201d a name coming from a piece composed by Joseph Hernandez who played piano in the album.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDendrology\u201d was an album mostly composed and fully recorded by students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important because it gives them a solid record of what they did here… It\u2019s preserved for all of time\u2026 that shows exactly in a very high quality way, what they worked on and the album is almost entirely student composition,\u201d Director of Jazz Studies and Assistant Professor of Saxophone Dr. Thomas Zinninger said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u201cDendrology\u201d album recording has a few yet-to-be released songs following the ology theme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s rare to produce an album I think of that high quality especially for undergrad students studying jazz at an institution of higher learning like this. I think some of that rivals professional level quality playing,\u201d Zinninger said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea comes from the state of the art recording studio built within the School of Music\u2019s new building that opened in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOut of the Blue,\u201d a trumpet ensemble recorded album released in November.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBack when I was their age you always wanted to get recordings of live performances because the live performance was the best, it had the best energy, it had the best performance, even though it might not be totally clean, it was the one we kind of wanted to emulate,\u201d Associate Professor of Trumpet and  Jazz Dr. Kyle Millsap said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After receiving the song compositions, Millsap wanted to be the first premiere recording for the compositions before the songs were released to others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNow because of how much recording has come out over that time the live performance is criticized against a recorded perfected recorded product. By getting themselves to the level of being able to perform in the recording studio with a microphone in your face, different kinds of nerves musicians refer to as tape nerves\u2026 you get yourself to that level and then the live performance in some ways becomes easier,\u201d Millsap said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Millsap said there\u2019s only one other university in the country that has recorded a student ensemble like this, which helps build notoriety for the music program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt feels awesome to have our music out there for everyone to hear,\u201d Brandon O\u2019Donohue said in a university press realese.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

O\u2019Donohue is a master\u2019s student in Music Performance who recorded on the \u201cOut of the Blue\u201d album.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt also is a little bit intimidating because there are so many great trumpet albums out there with ours. It is still an honor to be a part of it,\u201d he told the university. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The school plans to continue recording with their students releasing an album every year or two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have students who are willing to be pushed out of their comfort zone into something new,\u201d Millsap said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The albums \u201cDendrology\u201c and \u201cOut of the Blue\u201d can be found on Spotify.<\/p>\n\n\n\n