Gilbert, Ariz., Oct. 14, 2019 - The Conservatory of Recording Arts & Sciences (CRAS; www.cras.edu), the leading 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, Oct. 26 from 10am – 4pm. Three CRAS graduates, one of whom is a Marine Corps veteran, will be on hand for the Open House, and will also be part of an Open Panel Forum held for current CRAS students the evening of Oct. 25.
“Besides our mandatory internship program, getting our students in touch with our grads who either are working for others, or who have made the leap into self employment, is huge,” said Kirt Hamm, CRAS administrator. “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. In our ongoing quest to showcase many of the opportunities for our students once they graduate, we are able to give them an idea of what’s out there for them first hand once they enter the open market by connecting them with our graduates.”
Hamm added that CRAS also wants 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,” Hamm continued, “CRAS graduates populate, in great numbers, Grammy nominations for the year. At this year’s Grammy Awards, 14 of our graduates worked on 15 2019 GRAMMY Award-winning nominations by numerous artists. In total, 34 CRAS graduates worked on 36 GRAMMY-nominated albums and songs across 33 categories.”
Members of the October Open House Grad Panel include:
· Wil Anspach; a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who became part of one of the first units to enter Iraq in June 2002…he would see three deployments in the Middle East, and was shot in the leg while patrolling Najaf, Iraq. He is also a 2011 CRAS graduate who began his career by working at the renowned EastWest studio in Hollywood, Calif. After three years he had amassed a body of work that included Frank Ocean’s Channel Orange, Justin Timberlake’s 20/20 Experience, and the Latin Grammy Award-winning Agua Maldita from Molotov. He left EastWest to become the personal engineer for Alex Da Kid, working with Skylar Grey, X-Ambassadors, and Imagine Dragons before going freelance in 2015. Since then he has engineered three records for Vic Mensa, during which time he worked with NoID, Pharrell, Travis Barker, Tom Morello and Mike Dean. He has also worked with Zack de la Rocha, $uicide Boy$, and recorded the vocals of the 2018 Golden Globe Best Song Winner “This Is Me” for the movie The Greatest Showman.
· Kyle Oneal; a 2009 CRAS graduate who has been working post-production sound for more than 10 years. He’s currently working at South Lake Audio Services in Burbank, Calif. as a re-recording mixer. Kyle’s post-production audio resume includes ADR mixing, M&E mixing, dialogue editing, music editing, sound effects editing, foley recording/performing, and working in the machine room. As an ADR mixer, he worked on Teen Wolf, Awkward, Amazing Race, Halt & Catch Fire, Sanjay & Craig, and WestWorld season 1 team as an ADR mixer and won an Emmy Award with the crew. As a re-recording mixer, he’s worked on Chambers, Taken (the TV series), Perpetual Grace, Snatch, and a number of independent films. Currently working on Dragonheart 5, he will be working on Nickelodeon’s mini-series reboot of Are You Afraid of the Dark later in the year.
· Brandon Laureta; a 2017 CRAS graduate and currently works at VMWare Austin as an Audio/Visual support technician. His responsibilities include supporting corporate meetings, providing remote support, troubleshooting A/V systems, and overseeing A/V installations. Brandon is also a freelance audio engineer for clients such as Rooster Teeth Productions and The Alamo Drafthouse.
At the October 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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