{"id":2235614,"date":"2026-01-15T06:17:40","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T06:17:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2235614"},"modified":"2026-01-15T06:17:40","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T06:17:40","slug":"music-capstone-celebration-showcases-senior-student-projects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/music-capstone-celebration-showcases-senior-student-projects\/","title":{"rendered":"Music Capstone Celebration Showcases Senior Student Projects"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe University of New Haven\u2019s Department of Music, Theater, and Dance recently hosted its first ever Senior Playback, featuring capstone presentations and a showcase spearheaded by the Audio Engineering Society in collaboration with the Music Industry Club.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJanuary 14, 2026\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBy Mattingly Creter ‘ 27 and Marina Del Santo ’28\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe Senior Playback offered an opportunity for students to share portfolio-ready projects with the campus community.
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tIn December, the University of New Haven Department of Music, Theater, and Dance hosted its first-ever capstone showcase, presenting a chance for senior Music & Sound Recording<\/a> and Music Industry majors<\/a> to share their work with faculty and fellow students.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\tDuring their senior year, all music majors complete a capstone project that serves as the culmination of their learning at the University, representing a portfolio piece that they can use to build their career post-graduation.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\tFor Music & Sound Recording Majors, this can involve producing, recording, mixing, and mastering songs in the University\u2019s recording studios or pursuing projects related to film audio post-production, virtual instrument design, video game music composition, and more.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\tFor Music Industry (MIND) Majors, recent projects included pitches for music-tech applications, formation of a student-run organization as part of the National Independent Venue Association<\/a> (NIVA), a start-up record label, or research into the mythmaking of Artists & Repertoire.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\u201cOf course, I knew what my MIND students would present, and I\u2019m proud of their work and the support they got from their classmates,\u201d reflected Mark Tavern<\/a>, assistant professor of practice in Music Industry. \u201cI was also impressed by the skill and the diversity of creativity displayed by the Music & Sound Recording students, all of whom really turned in amazing work.\u201d\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n \"Music
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMusic & Sound Recording seniors showcased original work and technical projects developed in the University\u2019s recording studios.
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tIt was Music & Sound Recording senior and Audio Engineering Society<\/a> President Logan Pollak \u201926 who had the idea for the Senior Playback. \u201cAt my former college, we also had capstone projects, and we would book out a whole weekend for students to show off their music. Friends and family would show up, and it was a wonderful community moment to look forward to,\u201d he explains. \u201cI wanted to emulate that, but I never imagined it would go this well.\u201d\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\tThe afternoon began with Music Industry seniors presenting their capstone projects to an audience of students and professors. Topics ranged from a student-run concert in the University\u2019s German Club to a proposal on marketing the Nashville Study Away Program<\/a> to current and prospective students.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\tMIND major Imani Cooper \u201926 presented her project on boot-strapping an independent record label called Blue Hour Music Group. \u201cThe goal was to develop the skills of performers and educate musicians on the intricacies of the music industry, while allowing unique individuals to stay true to their art,\u201d Imani explained. She aspires to work alongside developing artists, and this project helped equip her with the skills necessary to do so.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\tImani leaves a piece of advice for all MIND students who will be completing a capstone soon. \u201cWhen I first started thinking about what to do for my capstone, I knew I didn\u2019t want it to just be something I put in my resume, but also something I would be proud of. My advice to those starting their capstones soon is to do something you wouldn\u2019t have thought to do before you came here. Then, exceed your own expectations so you can see how far you\u2019ve come.\u201d\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n \"Capstone
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCapstone presentations from Music Industry majors showcased creative approaches to careers behind the scenes of the music world.
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tAs part of the evening, each Music & Sound Recording senior played a selection from their project and answered questions from fellow students and faculty about their process. Students got to enjoy each other\u2019s music and discuss songwriting, microphone techniques, mixing styles, and more.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\tMany students chose to write and record original music, such as Carson Cramer \u201926 for his band Jericko, and Paul Dickens \u201926 for his band Somethin\u2019 Trippy. Other notable work included a project from Zach Rivet \u201926, which involved composing and arranging orchestral music in combination with rock instruments, involving massive sessions nearing one hundred different tracks.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\tSeveral students decided to explore beyond recording songs, with Valor Swezey \u201926 recording and mixing sound for a scene from the 1948 Hitchcock film Rope, Emma Yakalis \u201926 using Reaktor to design a digital synthesizer that modeled a viola, and Joshua Doody \u201926 composing music and creating sound design for several different video games.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\u201cThe turnout was so fantastic,\u201d said Logan. \u201cI think the reason it worked was that our student body is super supportive and kind. Seeing everyone come together and support each other was amazing.\u201d\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\tThe goal is now to make this a yearly tradition, allowing graduating seniors to showcase the skills they gained over their time at the University and under-class students to see all the incredible experiences they get to work toward.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.newhaven.edu \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The University of New Haven\u2019s Department of Music, Theater, and Dance recently hosted its first ever Senior Playback, featuring capstone presentations and a showcase spearheaded by the Audio Engineering Society in collaboration with the Music Industry Club. January 14, 2026 By Mattingly Creter ‘ 27 and Marina Del Santo ’28 The Senior Playback offered an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2235615,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2235614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Music-Capstone-Celebration-Showcases-Senior-Student-Projects.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2235614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2235614"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2235614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2235616,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2235614\/revisions\/2235616"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2235615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2235614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2235614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2235614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}