Neil Margeson Sound Scholarship

I have always loved making music. I began studying piano at five, followed by clarinet, guitar, and voice. Singing in the Young People’s Chorus of New York City for 5 years gave me opportunities to perform at Carnegie Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, David Geffen Hall, and the Denver Sing a Mile High Festival. I’ve taken voice lessons for five years, and my band, Electric Dickinson, has performed at The Bitter End, Drom NYC, and Rockwood Music Hall. I’ve grown through intensive music programs such as songwriting at Putney Summer Arts, the Sound Engineering and Audio Production Pre-College course at Syracuse University, and songwriting at School of Creative and Performing Arts, which culminated in recording an original at Dubway Studios. My song “Stuck My Tongue Out at the Moon” won first place in the 2023 Lipscomb School of Music Songwriting Contest and I’ve been using the prizes, an interface and microphone, to produce an album of my music. In my senior year of high-school I was a teaching assistant for three music classes, created a music honors course, co-lead Beacon Music Club and co-founded Song Production Club. I helped oversee 10+ student bands, live mixed band concerts, taught weekly voice lessons, and led workshops in songwriting, production, and recording arts. I’m now in my freshman year in the Music Industry Program (Recording Arts and Music Production concentration) at Drexel University in Philadelphia. In my classes I’ve gained fluency in Ableton and Pro Tools as well as expanded my knowledge of Logic Pro. Selected by Drexel Music Industry professors to attend Rock Lititz Experience Live, I loved getting to meet live music industry professionals and attend workshops in live sound mixing and event production. Outside of classes I’ve been mixing live sound, running lighting, and doing concert photography for Flux shows (Drexel’s student-run concert series). I was recently elected Venue Operations Chair. I also mix live on-air band performances and serve as New Member Coordinator at Drexel’s radio station, WDKU, organizing new DJ recruitment. My weekly alternative radio show, "The Whimsy Hour," has expanded my music taste and further connected me with Philadelphia’s music scene. Last summer as an Arts Administration Fellow at Wintergreen Music Festival I worked in the Box Office, supported marketing and development initiatives, and assisted with sound mixing and production.. This year I began teaching weekly guitar and piano private lessons at Drexel’s Dornsife Center for Neighborhood Partnerships, as well as co-instruct the choir. Helping students develop their technique, musicality, and confidence has been a highly impactful experience for me. I’ve also been studying voice with Rebecca Siler (founding member of grammy award winning group, The Crossing), as well as singing in both Drexel University Choir and Chamber Singers. As one of the few non-men in my production classes, I am committed to increasing gender equity in this industry. I was given the opportunity to interview Ashley Gellman (Concert Photographer for Boygenius, Lucy Dacus) for Drexel’s Double Platinum zine, which celebrates female Drexel grads in the music industry. My goals are to become a producer, mixing engineer, and music educator. And while I’m sure these will evolve, they’ll always center around building community and creating social impact. I would be so grateful to receive the Neil Margeson Sound Scholarship as it would cover a crucial portion of my tuition for next year, enabling me to continue my studies. My time at Drexel so far has been exciting and eye-opening. It feels like just the right place for me to continue developing my musicianship and working towards my career goals. Thank you so much for considering my application.

Stepping in a bright red sports car, warping through the fabric of space and time, in a psychedelic, hypnopaedic trance: war, technology, commercials, skyscrapers, and nightlife flashes through your unconscious mind. These are the scenes that have defined recent decades, in which as a result has taken a multitude of forms that connect with us as a listener. Yet through the decades, sound still manages to invoke a painting in our mind that manages to take new meanings in the modern age. For me, it wasn’t something that came to me at the start. I believed I wasn't capable of producing a piece of art when I entered high school. I was envious of those I perceived as simply having a natural artistic talent that I somehow lacked. I tried out various artforms in hopes that I would find the creative spark that I saw others had, but it wasn’t until I was introduced to Is This It by The Strokes by my older brother. This album would become a cornerstone of my music journey as later that year on Christmas, I saved enough money to buy a Fender Stratocaster and borrowed my church’s spare guitar amp. It wasn't long until I began taking guitar a bit more seriously by learning theory and eventually playing bass for my church. This led to learning the keyboard, which pushed my understanding of theory and arrangement even further. I started to see my favorite albums and music differently. I began to break down guitar and bass parts, analyze how they worked together, and begin understanding how those songs were actually constructed with intentionality. Songwriting, lyrical analysis, and composition drew me in. So naturally, I began consuming music outside of what I had in front of me to give me more of a perspective of the wide varieties of what music can sound like. When I stumbled across a YouTube video of the 2007 Rock in Japan Festival of the Japanese rock band, Asian Kung-Fu Generation (Ajikan); I felt like I had seen a reflection of what my potential musical journey could sound and look like even though it managed to exist around the time I was born. Their album Sol-fa and J-Rock as whole opened me to a completely new world which demonstrated the ways jazz, punk, rock and new wave could fit into one genre. J-Rock, a place where melodies and riffs intertwined to create a story with complex arrangements and song structures. J-Rock showed me how emotion, angst, and energy can be captured and recorded and how the studio’s role can have a impact on the final product. It made me realize music production is where science meets creativity and where a band’s signature sound is crafted. That realization led to me buying an interface, borrowing a mic and making covers of songs on Ableton Live Lite. I’m pretty sure freshman me, the kid who believed he lacked that creative spark wouldn’t believe how far I made it. It’s uncanny to think that it's just the beginning. I’m not sure where music will take me, but it’s something I want to keep exploring in college while connecting with a community that shares the same passion as me. I want to surprise my present self and see how far a few years of fully dedicating myself to my art can take me. I want to see how far this journey can go—starting from my bedroom and running as far across the earth wherever my passion leads me.

When I first saw the movie Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, I was astounded by the different sound effects and music, which were integral and helped make the story incredible. From that moment, I knew I wanted to work in some aspect of sound creation. Because of this inspiration, I asked the leaders of my church's Audio/Visual department if I could learn how to use the soundboards and live mixing for the worship service. They initially said no because of my age, but because of that, I worked hard on my own to reach the point where I could be a valuable member of the audio team when I was of age. During those years, from middle school to this past summer, I learned everything I could to prepare me to become a great at audio engineering in the future. In elementary school, I learned to play clarinet, so I continued to become an expert by practicing it daily. I also asked for old guitars and a bass that people in my neighborhood would throw away and learned how to read bass clef sheet music and play the instruments. I was also introduced to my first digital audio workspace, SoundTrap, where I practiced sound mixing, recording, and editing to be prepared to join my Audio/Visual team in church. By the time I was in high school, I was participating in miscellaneous audition-based honors ensembles and competition bands on bass and clarinet, as well as taking AP Music Theory to further advance my musicianship skills. When I got my first job, I used the money to buy Pro Tools Ultimate. I learned how to use ProTools Ultimate coupled with Audio University videos, which taught me how to use compression and equalizers and mix, record, and master in professional quality workspaces. Because of my dedication and work, when I asked again this past summer for a position at the soundboards, I was accepted, and I am currently in training to run the soundboards and help in live sound mixing for services and the YouTube stream. Though I am interested in all aspects of audio engineering, my main desired field is audio post-production engineering. To reach this career goal, I applied to eight programs that would prepare me successfully. Because of my dedication and hard work, I was admitted into all the programs I applied to, including my top choice, the University of Rochester. This program's Music and Audio Engineering curriculum has many different opportunities to improve me as a performer through studying at the Eastman School of Music, a highly regarded music program, while also being an accredited program by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET. Through research, I found that the course also has specific audio techniques and electronics classes to teach students how to edit and manipulate audio through techniques like ADR and learn many different types of digital audio workspaces. I fully believe that an education of this caliber will prepare me for a successful career as an audio engineer through the program's focus on musicianship coupled with sound design, which will set me apart from my peers when I look to apply for jobs. Sound and audio have shaped my entire life thus far, and I am dedicated to making it my career. Once I gain a college education in the field, I will fully be prepared to be an audio post-production engineer for movies and other media like the ones that inspired me. I also hope to inspire others to build audio engineering and sound design careers.