Students Take the Stage for Open Mic Night and More!

Open Mic nights can be a fun way for students to take the stage and show off their skills, and that's exactly what happened in late October when DSU Live assisted student Tanner Bowman and the English club with the event.

Talent included some great singers and poets, some of which were using this as a warm-up for the English Club Poetry Slam that took place several weeks later. In a change of outcome from the past several years, the faculty snagged a victory based on the final tally from the judges' scoring.

The entertainment continues as DSU Live hosts a Karaoke night this week and Sandy Champion's music students perform a musical variety concert this weekend featuring the music of Disney!

DSU Live Hosts Jami Lynn and Chris Champion

It was a great pleasure to welcome Jami Lynn and Chris Champion to DSU as a part of our ongoing concert series collaboration between DSU Live and the Madison Area Arts council. As in previous semesters, we transformed an auditorium into an intimate acoustic music venue, complete with staging and lighting. The DSU Live students did a fantastic job helping with setup, and Nolan Moser took the help as our lead live engineer.

Chris is always impressive on guitar, sharing both originals and covers, and showing off his stellar guitar chops. Jami followed with her South Dakota-inspired original tunes, sung with acoustic guitar and banjo. She was later joined by Andrew Reinartz on upright bass, and Dalton Coffey on dobro. The trio made for a gorgeous sound that perfectly filled the auditorium.

Once mixed and mastered, the recording will be submitted for broadcast on SDPB radio’s “No Cover, No Minimum”, and there also will be several videos produced from the evening. Below is the first one completed, a tune performed by the trio called “Red Fox”:

Audio Program Featured in Recent Ad

Audio Production student Derek Carlson (and a blurry Daryl Becker and Cody Welu) were featured in a recent DSU advertisement highlighting the Audio program. The pic was posed during one of our Live Sound classes in the Trojan Center Underground last year, as we practiced setting up various live audio scenarios. Check it out!

DSU's Got Talent returns!

Our annual homecoming week "DSU's Got Talent" show was another success this year, mainly featuring singers, along with a saxophone quartet performing Pharrell's "Happy".

Our judges this year were Professor Glenn Berman, Professor Michael Gaylor, and student Andy Meyer. They gave a lot of witty commentary between acts, and judged the students in order to determine three top winners at the end of the evening.

The first prize winner was Jenna Sorsen, who did a solo vocal rendition of a song that she wrote. There was a packed crowd that was hugely supportive of all the acts. It was an awesome evening of entertainment and a great way for students to share their talents!

The Fall 2014 Semester Kicks Off With a Bang!

As is often the case when the new school year kicks off, we have a ton of exciting events happening in the first couple of weeks, including karaoke, a comedian, and a DJ dance. But before all of that, the Student Activities Board welcomed the duo, "Scratch & Bang", with audio help from the DSU Live Technical Services students.

The group has a unique twist on the typical dance DJ format. One of the members is a DJ, while the other is a drummer, which adds a nice extra layer of impact to the performance. The duo performed non-stop for over 90-minutes and played every song from modern hits, nostalgic classics, and some wild cards thrown in the mix (I think I heard the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme song in there at one point).

The night started with a packed crowd of over 150 students, and the most exciting part is that only the Freshman had moved in thus far. "Scratch & Bang" put on a killer show that set the tone for the rest of the events to come. Now it's back to school this week. Fall 2014 semester is here!

The "Last Week Luau" Wraps up the Semester

Every Breath rocking acoustically

We finished up a semester packed with concerts by welcoming three excellent bands to play for our "Last Week Luau" on campus: "The Business, Man", Every Breath, and June Embers.

June Embers

Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate for an outdoor show, but the students set up the show in the Trojan Center Marketplace and the bands rocked out throughout the evening. The show was a great combination of acoustic music and alternative rock. It was also a great experience for the students to move all of our audio equipment and set up in a new location.

The Business, Man

We broke our event record this year, combining DSU Live concerts and Technical Services assisted shows, there were a whopping 42 events! Now, all we have left is finals week and summer is upon us!

"Every Breath" Records in the DSU Studio

The acoustic duo, Every Breath, has been recording for the past several weeks at the DSU studio with Audio Production student, Kyle Vis. The posted this really cool photo collage to show some of the process as they have been making their recording. We are also excited to be welcoming them back for a live performance at the end of the semester for our outdoor concert at the "Last Week Luau"!

Folk and Country musicians visit DSU

There's been a ton of great live music at DSU this semester, including a fantastic show with acoustic musicians John Statz and Zachary Lucky. Zachary is from Saskatchewan, Canada, while John resides in Denver. They teamed up for a month-long national tour that had its final night here at DSU.

Zachary and John’s music covers a wide-range of topics, many about traveling and various locations, and some quite serious and deep, such as a song from John about a man suffering from a head injury following a career in football. As a part of the show, my wife Cassie’s “Design II: Color” students created abstract paintings that were shown on the projector screens. DSU professor Wayne Madsen also displayed his artwork around and behind the performers.

Adam Hammer paid another visit to DSU to talk to students about music career and perform an acoustic show. I was also excited to play an opening set that night for Adam, which gave me the opportunity to perform some of my new songs!



Lastly, we had a really stellar show featuring the bands Burlap Wolf King, a folk rock band from Sioux Falls, and Expatriate, an alt-country band from the Twin Cities. We had a great turnout, and the show was excellent!

Audio Student does Internship at the Washington Pavilion

The stage set up for the Green Day Musical "American Idiot" - Photos by Matt Lyon

Soon-to-be DSU graduate Matt Lyon spent the past several months as an intern at the Washington Pavilion Performing Arts Center in Sioux Falls. Over the course of the internship, Matt focused on learning skills in live audio production, but helped in nearly every facet of event production.

Some of the major events that Matt helped with included the "American Idiot" touring musical, featuring the music of Green Day, "Rain", a Beatles tribute concert, and several performances by the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra.

Matt said that the internship was a huge learning experience. Safety was always a key concern, and they would wear hard hats whenever working on constructing a set or making other changes to the stage. He said that he was really overwhelmed with the amount of knowledge that the audio engineers possessed, but was able to take in as much as he possibly could. Matt also said that his experience with DSU Live was a huge help in terms of knowing how to host a live concert event, even though the events at the Pavilion were on a larger scale.

Now that his internship is complete, Matt has just recently accepted a job with Daktronics and will be starting there soon. We wish him all the best!

Interested in Audio Production? Come and "Discover DSU"!

Periodically throughout the year, DSU has a day to invite prospective students and their families to tour DSU, meet with faculty, and see what our University has to offer. For any of you out there interested in Audio Production, this means that you can chat with us about the program and check out the recording studio!

Our upcoming Discover DSU Day is coming up on Friday, February 14th (Valentine's Day), and you can check out the information page for the daily schedule, as well as future dates.

Audio Students visit the South Dakota State Capitol

We were thrilled this week to be one of several majors and specializations from DSU that were invited to a day-long event in South Dakota's capital, Pierre, to meet with legislators and show off our cutting-edge technology-based programs.

Checking out the main atrium in the State Capitol

During our visit, we toured the Capitol building, as well as the state forensic laboratory and police training center. We also had the opportunity to meet briefly as a group with Governor Daugaard and observe a legislative session.

In the evening, the students set up a display that included student-produced live concert videos and an interactive audio mixing station. Throughout the course of the evening, the students talked with a number of legislators about what we learn in the audio program and the careers that can be pursued in the field. We all had a great time and found it to be a very beneficial and educational experience. It was rewarding to be able to show off our great program!

A group photo op with President Borofsky