image caption: Maverick Turner - Broadcast Audio Engineer; 2013 GRAS graduate; currently working for ESPN as an A1 Audio Operator.
Gilbert, Ariz., Sept. 24, 2018 - The Conservatory of Recording Arts & Sciences (CRAS; www.cras.edu), the premier institution for audio engineering education, will be opening the doors to its Gilbert, Ariz. campus (1205 N. Fiesta Blvd.) to prospective students, parents, and the media on Saturday, Sept. 29 from 10am – 4pm. Three CRAS graduates with careers in the broadcast, video game, and music recording industries will be on hand for the Open House, and they will also be part of an Open Panel Forum held for current CRAS students the evening of Sept. 27.
“There are a host of opportunities for our students once they graduate, and we want to give them an idea of what’s out there first hand for them once they enter the open market,” said Kirt Hamm, CRAS administrator. “Besides our mandatory internship program, getting our students in touch with our graduates who either are working for others, or who have made the leap into self employment, is huge. That’s what this grad panel is about in our upcoming Open House. Continued education, networking, and learning what it takes for going out on one’s own by those who have done it already is of enormous value for any student.”
Hamm continued, “We also want prospective students and their parents to discover everything there is to know about a CRAS education, and with hard work and dedication just how successful they can be. For instance, every year, CRAS graduates populate, in great numbers, Grammy nominations for the year. Most recently, seven of our graduates worked on multiple 2018 Grammy Award-winning projects by numerous artists. In total, 28 CRAS graduates worked on 26 Grammy-nominated albums and songs across 28 categories this past year.”
Members of the September Open House Grad Panel include:
Maverick Turner - Broadcast Audio Engineer; 2013 GRAS graduate; currently working for ESPN as an A1 Audio Operator. Turner has worked for client(s) and companies such as: ESPN, House of Blues [Dallas], Carnival Cruise, Dallas Opera, Six Flags Over Texas, Undermain Theatre [Dallas, Texas], Northstar Baptist Church, and more. Along with being an operator, Maverick also has had music placement(s) on American Idol, FOX Sports and Comcast Television. He also recorded six albums as a hip-hop artist and has shared the same stage with major artist(s) such as Nipsey Hussle, Lil Scrappy, Young Joc & Bone Thugs N' Harmony.
Maverick often credits to his teachers, staff and his great experience while attending CRAS as a major route to his success.
Martin Gray - freelance engineer/studio manager; formerly of Westlake now with Alliance Music; 2015 CRAS graduate.
After graduation, Gray moved to Los Angeles and started climbing the studio ladder where he became a freelance engineer and was given the opportunity to also get involved in studio management. Gray’s credits include The Chainsmokers, Demi Lovato & Camila Cabello’s hit song “Havana”.
Cesar Marenco - Game Audio Dialogue Editor, Formosa Group; 2010 CRAS graduate.
Marenco applied his internship at Blindlight, where he earned his first credit, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim as a dialogue editor. Marenco then moved to Boston to attend Berklee College of Music, where he eventually graduated in 2017 in Electronic Production and Design with minors in “Acoustics and Electronics” and “Audio Design for Video Games”. He then interned at Igloo Music. He now works as a full-time dialogue editor at at Formosa Group - Interactive.
At the September Open House, guests will be able to interact with CRAS faculty and get a taste of the curriculum and the state-or-the-art audio gear spread throughout its numerous classrooms as well as its 42-foot Mobile Broadcast Unit. They will also be able to participate in live demonstrations in many of these real world audio recording studios, live sound venue, and labs.
The Conservatory of Recording Arts & Sciences is composed of two nearby campuses in Gilbert and Tempe, Ariz. A CRAS education includes Broadcast Audio, Live Sound, Audio Post for Film and TV, Music Production, Commercial Production and Video Game Audio, all taught by award-winning instructors who have excelled in their individual fields. CRAS’ structured programs, and highly qualified teaching staff, provide a professional and supportive atmosphere, which is complemented by its small class sizes allowing for individual instruction and assistance for students in engineering audio recordings. CRAS has been providing quality vocational training in Audio Recording for more than three decades. The curriculum and equipment are constantly being updated to keep pace with the rapid advancements in the music and sound recording industries. CRAS’ course offerings and subject matter have always centered around the skills and knowledge necessary for students’ success in the Audio Recording industries.
The 11-month program is designed to allow every student access to learn and train in all of the Conservatory’s studios which are comprised with state-of-the-art audio recording and mixing gear, the same equipment used in today’s finest studios and remote broadcast facilities, including Pro Tools 12, API Legacy consoles, SSL G+ and AWS consoles, Studer Vista consoles, and much more. All students must complete a 280-hour industry internship to graduate from the Master Recording Program II that may ultimately lead to industry employment.
“We want everyone to see, hear, and feel how our 11-month program focuses exclusively on what a student needs to know to begin living their passion in any one of the many facets of the Recording Arts,” Hamm concluded.
For more information on the Conservatory of Recording Arts & Sciences, please visit www.cras.edu, contact Kirt Hamm, administrator, at 1-800-562-6383, or email to info@cras.edu.
About The Conservatory of Recording Arts & Sciences
Based in the heart of The Valley of the Sun with two campuses in Gilbert and Tempe, Ariz., The Conservatory of Recording Arts & Sciences (CRAS) is one of the country’s premier institutions for audio education. The Conservatory has developed a unique and highly effective way to help the future audio professional launch their careers in the recording industry and other related professional audio categories.
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