Ideawerks Grand Opening

Posted by admin on Friday, May 29th, 2009

GRAND OPENING Invitation

The New Powderhorn Park Studio
May 30, 2009 1:00 – 3:00PM
Presented by IDEAWERKS®
Indigenous Creative Academy
IPR/Jackie Lee Robinson Foundation
Powderhorn Park and MPRB
Multi-Media Arts Program
& Scholarships

Learn recording techniques & multi-media production
Produce and record your own project
Study music basics
Program starts June 2009
Ages 12-18

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St. Paul Honors Volunteer Efforts Of IPR Employee

Posted by admin on Thursday, May 28th, 2009

Chelsea Starr (The Institute of Production and Recording) recently won an award for her stewardship with The Dayton’s Bluff Vacant Homes Committee which received The Community Organization Award from the Saint Paul Heritage Preservation Commission and Saint Paul Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. The award was given in recognition of “their ongoing commitment to organizing the Dayton’s Bluff Vacant Home Tour and educating purchasers on the value of historic homes”. The Preservation Commission of St. Paul issued nine awards this year, with only one going to a volunteer organization focused on creating stronger communities. Mrs. Starr also serves as a delegate for her district and was recently voted Chair of the Constitution Committee for the St. Paul DFL Party.

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IPR kicks off Alumni Event Series!

Posted by admin on Wednesday, May 27th, 2009

On May 12, 2009 IPR held the first official Alumni event. The event started at 5pm with a reception in the Green Room, followed by a presentation of the Pro-Audio industry leader Digidesign in our large lecture hall, Robinson Hall. Seventeen graduates came, some from far, some graduated recently, others several years ago, and some brought a guest.

It was a fantastic vibe! Graduates met old classmates, exchanged information, networked amongst each other and with IPR faculty and staff, and of course reconnected with the school.

Later, Digidesign presented new products and gave away some amazing gear prizes.

This was the “kick-off” for the IPR alumni event series which will schedule an alumni event once a month.

Photography by Sheri Ledin

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IPR kicks off Alumni Event Series!

Posted by admin on Wednesday, May 27th, 2009

On May 12, 2009 IPR held the first official Alumni event. The event started at 5pm with a reception in the Green Room, followed by a presentation of the Pro-Audio industry leader Digidesign in our large lecture hall, Robinson Hall. Seventeen graduates came, some from far, some graduated recently, others several years ago, and some brought a guest.

It was a fantastic vibe! Graduates met old classmates, exchanged information, networked amongst each other and with IPR faculty and staff, and of course reconnected with the school.

Later, Digidesign presented new products and gave away some amazing gear prizes.

This was the “kick-off” for the IPR alumni event series which will schedule an alumni event once a month.

Photography by Sheri Ledin

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IPR Instructor Competes In Street Fighter IV Championships

Posted by admin on Wednesday, May 27th, 2009

Kyle Stallock, IPR Video Gaming class instructor, was recently flown out to the "Street Fighter IV" national championships in San Francisco.  Sponsored by Gamestop, the event brought together top tier talent ready to compete for the honor of being the best in this popular gaming title.  Street Fighter was one of the first, and still considered by many to be one of the best, games to offer player vs. player combat featuring a wide range of unique characters, each with their own skill set and special moves.  Kyle came in around the fifteenth in the nation; check out the action in this highlight video...

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Alumni Event in June

Posted by admin on Wednesday, May 20th, 2009

Hi again – all alumni are again invited to our monthly event. It will be on Tuesday, June 9 from 5pm to 6pm in the IPR Green Room. We will have food and drinks for everyone. Please RSVP by clicking HERE. June 9 is the second day of the Live Sound Seminar with Meyer Sound and world class engineers. The seminar is from 9am till 5pm. If you are interested, please read about it and register HERE

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Nico Muhly/Southern Theatre/Wed, 5-20; Thu, 5-21/7:30/$22.00/Act Now!

Posted by Rod Smith on Wednesday, May 20th, 2009

Nico Muhly and Nadia Sirota invade Woody Allen and Bobby Short’s turf to perform excerpts from Muhly’s soundtrack for “The Reader.”

Though he stands a good chance of becoming America’s most celebrated composer-performer since Leonard Bernstein, Nico Muhly is hardly the first classical dude to traffick with popular acclaim–or popular music. George Gershwin spent a good chunk of his career with a foot in each realm–William Grant Still and Bernstein, too, as well as Muhly’s long-time friend and boss: Philip Glass. Glass found his way into the wider public’s ear during the 1970’s, even as Rhys Chatham, Pauline Oliveros, Brian Eno, Laurie Anderson, Glenn Branca, Gavin Bryars, David Toop, Jon Hassell and a host of other visionary shapeshifters from all over the musical map made sawdust of whatever remained of the barrier between “serious” music and its scruffier cousins.

Muhly could make a living with his cooking anf blogging skills alone. The rest is gravy.

By the time Minneapolis hosted New Music America’s 1980 launch, the old distinctions had vanished–or so it seemed–especially when David Byrne, The Art Ensemble of Chicago, and Glass wrapped the eight-day, citywide extravaganza with a finale that celebrated the marriage of difference and commonality with nary a rupture within earshot. Between the Art Ensemble’s set and Glass’s, the audience even got in on the act, spontaneouly whipping off a totally inspired a cappella piece that turned the old Guthrie Theater’s seating scheme into a platform for sustained, 360-degree, call-and-response improvisation.

Speaking of cooking, eat your heart out, Martha Stewart.

Magnificent as the show was, it did nothing to dissuade nitpickers from wondering why Talking Heads’ leader had gotten, at most, 10 minutes on stage. The answer came not long after Byrne himself, in black tee and black jeans, strolled out of the Walker before the building had finished emptying. He didn’t go far.

When the “Wall Street Journal” covers a composer’s New Year’s resolutions, you can pretty much assume he’s arrived.

Looking preternaturally alert as always, he proceeded to just hang out, whipping the already-giddy after-show crowd’s elation to a frothy fever pitch. Byrne chatted with all comers for a good long while before mysteriously heading up Hennepin on foot. At least one had the sense to pop the question. He answered in detail, and word traveled quickly.

London, May 8, 2009: Muhly confronts Union Chapel’s out-of-tune piano, pwns regardless.

Already well under the guidance of John G. Chernoff’s magisterial African Rhythms and African Ssensibilities—and the spell of Fela Anikulapo Kuti’s Afrobeat—he’d written 40 minutes of music rich with the Nigerian vibe soon to manifest on Remain in Light. With the exception of violinist Gary Schulte, who he singled out for excellence, all members of the string octet Byrne conducted came from either the Minnesota Orchestra or Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Again apart from Schulte, they found the stuff’s rhythmic sophistication so daunting, Byrne had to spend his entire allotted week here teaching them to properly play one short piece.

Muhly and friends enjoy putrefied shark. Okay, maybe “enjoy” is a bit strong.

At the peripatetic festival’s 1982 Chicago installment, the problem wasn’t mild friction between youngish-old and younger-new guards, but a vicious open attack by old-new-guard, phony-anarchist/tyrant John Cage on new-new-guard, anarcho-maximalist Glenn Branca. Branca;s crime? Being “too deliberate” (read: “insufficiently random,”) for Cage’s druthers, to the extent that Mr. I Ching-Weenie did his best to destroy Branca’s career–and partially succeeded. For years Cage’s stamp of disapproval made the younger composer pretty much persona non grata among the feckless curatorial types still far too common in the nonprofit arts world.

If more composers had a Nadia Sirota, their momentum might come to equal Muhly’s. But probably not.

But Branca, at least he recovers. New Music America limps through 1990, never quite reclaiming the unguarded openness that made its first couple years so lustrous. By the time Cage dies in 1992, he’s a household name hardly anybody listens to. Muhly is 10 years old.

Like Muhly, Sirota gets around.

Even if Cage were still alive and in good health, he wouldn’t be able to touch Muhly; he moves too surely and too fast. The young composer’s long-time association with Philip Glass began well before he studied under neoromantics John Corigliano and Christopher Rouse at Julliard, and Glass does three things most contemporary composers don’t: 1.) sell records. 2.) sell tickets; 3.) collaborate with rock and pop musicians. His friend and employer’s willingness to work with the likes of David Bowie, Brian Eno, Suzanne Vega, Leonard Cohen, and Aphex Twin might not have had any bearing at all on Muhly’s appetite for collaboration, but it surely hasn’t hurt.

“But can you dance to Muhly’s music?” Funny you should ask.

Though his partnerships with Björk, Antony and the Johnsons, Rufus Wainwright, Will Oldham, Grizzly Bear, and Valgeir Sigurðsson help feed the Muhly mystique, they’re only one wedge of a very large tomato. His contributions to the soundtracks for Joshua and The Reader have already won countless hearts, and he works the classical circuit’s classiest joints with a regularity that would almost certainly kill a less formidable composer’s career. One of Muhly’s greatest strengths is that he never repeats himself. Another is viola prodigy Nadia Sirota, who appears on everything he’s recorded to date. That she’ll be joining him at the Southern for the world premier of two new works hugely sweetens an already-intriguing deal.

No rest for the best: Muhly hurried from Union Chapel to All Tomorrow’s Parties, then Stateside for a gig at Alice Tully.

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Nico Muhly/Southern Theatre/Wed, 5-20; Thu, 5-21/7:30/$22.00/Act Now!

Posted by Rod Smith on Tuesday, May 19th, 2009

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/Rdc2BYdVhTg" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

Nico Muhly and Nadia Sirota invade Woody Allen and Bobby Short’s turf to perform excerpts from Muhly’s soundtrack for “The Reader.”

(more…)

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Music + Film + Interactive: IPR Attends SXSW ‘09

Posted by Travis Norman on Monday, May 18th, 2009

Every year in early March, over 11,000 professional registrants, thousands of fans for performing acts, and the city of Austin Texas, take part in South by Southwest (SXSW). By day, registrants take part in the Trade Show within the Austin Convention Center containing discussion panels, and booths with presence from around the world. By night, hundreds of musical acts from around the world perform, as the streets of Austin fill, and light up with entertainment.

This year, IPR sent 8 students, and one admissions representative to attend SXSW. The group consisted of students from the Audio Production and Engineering program, as well as the Entertainment Business program that IPR offers. The main goal of the trip was to take advantage of the visibility available at SXSW, allowing others from around the world to see what IPR and it’s students are all about. The school had it’s own Trade Show booth within the Convention Center in Austin, which provided information regarding the school itself, current students, and the school’s record label, “Student Run Records.”

During their six day visit, the group took part in a number of events and opportunities. Below is a list of activities that they were involved in:

•  Students took part in panels within the Convention Center, covering topics such as: “Artist Question and Answer, A&R Information in 2009, and Innovations in Digital Music.”
• IPR students approached people on the streets of Austin to communicate the idea behind the school with the public. Students explained their experiences from school, and what they are learning at IPR.
• Students attended live shows and interviewed participants, to find what people are listening to, and embrace different companies that are building the success of performance.
• IPR students came away from the festival with pertinent information from relevant artists. Artists were asked for their opinions about the current music industry and marketplace, and for what they have planned for their careers.
• Various group members met with company representatives in the Trade Show to talk about current internship programs for students.

 The students that represented IPR will be sharing the positive outcomes and experiences from the trip on the IPR website, Facebook, Twitter, and IPR’s other social networks…

“In its 22 years, SXSW has grown from a tiny music festival in the Texas capital into a massive, unavoidable media beast that reflects, discusses and showcases trends in culture and media but also often creates them.” National Post, 3/13/08

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“People count on us to continue writing the soundtracks to their lives…” Boyz II Men Visit IPR

Posted by Travis Norman on Friday, May 15th, 2009

On Friday, April 24th, IPR was proud to welcome Boyz II Men, Grammy Award-winning American R&B soul singing group, to our campus.  In addition to reminiscing on the ups and downs of the journey that has been their musical career, they offered insight into what it takes to be successful in today’s industry and marketplace.  This advice, coupled with a 60 second acapella vocal preview of what to expect at their concert later that night, left the capacity crowd cheering for more!

“Back in the day, if you saw bow ties, you knew it was Boyz II Men”




“Give them what they paid to see…100% every time you’re on stage.”




Advice to aspiring songwriters: “write good songs”.




In regard to today’s fast moving music industry: “Now if you are twenty minutes late, you are two years late.”

Boyz II Men with Andre Fischer, Executive Director of Music Industries, and Brian “Champtown” Harmon, Artist Relations Representative

“Tribulations are there for you to get through and become stronger as a result.”

This was part of an ongoing industry lecture series “THE PROFESSIONALS” presented all year long by IPR.  Guest speakers will discuss every aspect of the music and entertainment business, multimedia arts, music production, publishing and recording technology careers.

Tags: Boyz II Men, Events, IPR, R&B
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Announcements

April 28, 2010

Al Kooper Plays Dakota Jazz Club, IPR’s DIY360

November 10, 2009

Jackie Lee Robinson Remembered

October 30, 2009

Mary Ann O’Dougherty Remembered

October 14, 2009

Networking at AES