Shure Incorporated announces that a team from Drexel University won the company’s sixth annual Fantastic Scholastic Recording Competition. The four students—Chris Pollock, Monika Arielle Julien, Justin T. Chapman and Lenard Reuben Skolnick, with faculty advisor Cyrille Taillandier—won this year’s contest with an original composition by Sonni Shine entitled “Just Like Ice.”
The winning team from Drexel University in Philadelphia
“Congratulations to the winning team from Drexel University, and thanks to all of the students who participated in the contest from all of the schools this year,” says Shure Market Development Specialist Dave Mendez, who coordinated the competition. “This was one of the most musically diverse and high quality fields of submitted entries in our contest’s history. In the end, though, the project submitted by Drexel won over our amazing panel of judges.”
The judges for the competition were Ed Cherney, Mike Clink, Ryan Hewitt, Tom Jung and Hugh Padgham. They evaluated the recordings on their overall fidelity, clarity and sonic balance, as well as creativity in selection and placement of microphones.
“In a world of DI’s and samples, it is refreshing to see the use of microphone technology and acoustic recording promoted by the Shure recording competition,” says Jung. “Without this type of encouragement, I’m afraid that acoustic recording might just become a lost art over time.”
“Being a judge for the Shure recording contest was fun,” says Cherney. “In every recording and performance I could hear the exuberance and total love and dedication to music. It reminded me of why I pursued this life in the first place.”
In addition to the Drexel team, there were nine other competing teams from Belmont University, DePaul University, Emerson College, Shenandoah University, the University of Central Missouri, the University of Colorado, Denver, the Peabody Conservatory of Music at Johns Hopkins University, the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music, and William Paterson University of New Jersey.
The runner-up in this year’s competition was the team from the University of Colorado, Denver. The students from the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore received an honorable mention.
Each of the 10 student teams worked on a recording project that required tracking and mixing a performance using a “microphone locker” provided by Shure for the competition. Teams submitted a stereo mix for review by a panel of industry professionals who were selected by Shure to judge the competition.
“One of the things that is always hard to teach in a music program is the importance of capturing the moment,” says Professor Cyrille Taillandier, the faculty advisor for the winning team from Drexel. “I think it offered a unique and valuable opportunity with Shure putting together this contest to put the emphasis on how to do a great job capturing the song, and I thought that would be great for the students to have that experience.”
As the winning school, Drexel University takes ownership of a selection of Shure KSM microphones valued at more than $6,000 and comprising one KSM313 ribbon microphone, two KSM32/SL, two KSM44/SL, two KSM141/SL studio condenser microphones and one A27M stereo mic stand adapter. In addition, Shure will donate $3,000 toward a scholarship fund at Drexel, and each member of the winning team will receive a KSM32/SL, valued at $686.
Listen to the submissions from the top three schools.
Visit Shure at www.shure.com/americas.
