Office of Public Affairs Acadia University Wolfville, Nova Scotia B0P 1X0 (902) 585-1362 Fax (902) 585-1072 News Release For Release: April 18, 2000

Acadia University's School of Music strikes an electronic chord

(Wolfville, NS) -  Technology has brought a whole new dimension to the way Acadia University students learn and now interactive learning has taken on a different tune.

The Acadia Music Department, enabled by the Acadia Advantage program,  has expanded its curriculum to bring new options for students.  It is now possible to obtain a Bachelor of Arts in Music with a concentration in Music Technology.

Christopher Both, a founding professor claims the new technology has had a great impact on the musical progress of students. The new equipment, which includes CD-ROMs for music appreciation courses, software which writes music like poetry and also allows a notebook to become a personal recording studio, gives graduating students new career opportunities in radio, television and broadcasting, sound engineering and recording.

This new expanded curriculum is also incorporating computer technology, which allows students to practice ensemble pieces from the comfort of their own rooms, without needing to meet with other group members.  This software permits musical scores assigned by professors to be converted into computer-readable MIDI files, which allow the playback of the entire work with choices of focusing on all or individual voices at variable tempos.

Acadia students also have had the opportunity to perform with students from around the world.  Last summer, an Acadia student performed with musicians from Hamburg, San Francisco and New York all through the Internet.  The performance was "staged" in the new School of Music Acadia Advantage classroom and was enabled by leading edge computer software.  The software "transforms the Acadia laptop into a virtual recording studio", said Dr. Both.  "Musicians log onto a server and join a type of music chat room.  Using the network, musicians can join virtual jam sessions, adding their tracks to ones being created by other musicians who are also logged onto the network."

 Acadia is a leader in innovation and excellence in the classroom.  The university provides students with world-class access to information and technology through the Acadia Advantage program, which links students to a network of resources through the use of notebook computers.
 

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Published by: The Office of Public Affairs Last revised: June 2,  2000 URL: http://www.acadiau.ca/whatsnew/newsrelease/schoolofmusicrelease.htm