News

Each year, the Marketing Communications team develops a holiday greeting from the university to faculty, staff, students, alumni and friends of MSUM. What had once been a traditional greeting card has evolved into a short video utilizing the talents of staff and our student workers who are often studying film, marketing, ad/PR or similar academic disciplines.

This year, Marketing interns Sara Erickson (broadcast journalism), Azmi Murtaza (advertising and PR), Dillan Schmiedt (film production), Leah Schmitt (advertising and PR), and Mandi Wahl (graphic design), with help from Music faculty member Allen Carter and Entertainment Industries and Technology faculty member Ryan Jackson, are working on an ambitious greeting in production now. Read the rest of this entry →

Professor of Music Allen Carter’s new CD “Time On My Hands” has received a highly positive review in the publication All About Jazz garnering 4 1/2 out of a possible 5 star rating. The review states that, “Simply, it can’t be done any better.” Along with citing the quality of Carter’s work, the review also points to the audio engineering work of MSUM colleague Ryan Jackson. You can see the full review at allaboutjazz.com.

By Jamie Hutchinson

The music industry program at Minnesota State University Moorhead finds music students turning knobs and flipping switches as they employ the latest music recording technology while running their own record label, Undeclared Records.

The label gives students the chance to receive music industry experience while at the same time offering MSUM musicians the chance to make a professionally recorded album and have it released on a record label at no cost to them. Read the rest of this entry →

Ryan Jackson, Music, appears live today at 3 p.m. on “Main Street,” a Prairie Public Radio program. Jackson coordinates the Music Industry program, and will talk about the program and Undeclared Records, a record label operated on campus as an educational opportunity for students.  You can listen online by going to http://radiobookmark.com/listener-interactive/webplayer/#/fullscreen/station/Fc6yEw9PkL2ZANvC

This article is from Prairie Business Magazine.

By: Dan Gunderson, Minnesota Public Radio News
www.prairiebizmag.com/event/article

MOORHEAD, Minn. — Eric Jensen spends countless hours in the recording studio trying to create new tunes, the kind of work that could help him make it in the music business.

Jensen is enrolled in a Minnesota State University-Moorhead program in which students earn a degree by booking concerts and producing records.

Although the university has offered the Music Industry and Entertainment Studies program for 30 years, a new generation of students is using it to gain real-world experience in a rapidly changing industry. Read the rest of this entry →

Dr. Kenyon Williams’, Music, solo CD project, “Homage,” received a positive review in this month’s issue of “Percussive Notes,” the official journal of the Percussive Arts Society. In the review, Dr. Williams’ playing is described as “expressive without being overly sentimental” and the CD as a whole is “beautifully recorded” by fellow MSUM faculty member Professor Ryan Jackson.

In addition, Dr. William’s joint performance with MSUM composition professor and guitarist Dr. Henry Gwiazda’s “Homage to Jimi” is labeled as “a stumbling and fun mash-up” of musical styles. The CD is available for purchase on iTunes and CDBaby.com.

By: Kay Cooley, WDAY

Watch the video here.

Fargo, ND (WDAY TV)-- Most musicians hoping to make it big can only dream of one day signing with a record label. But a student run group at MSUM is turning that dream into a reality for local musicians. Behind the books and hours of studying.

Fargo, ND (WDAY TV)– Most musicians hoping to make it big can only dream of one day signing with a record label. But a student run group at MSUM is turning that dream into a reality for local musicians. Behind the books and hours of studying.

Lies a group thats turning the eyes, and ears, of everyone who stops to listen.

Rachael Goers- Undeclared Records President: “Our program and even just Undeclared Records is very unique. That’s actually why I chose to go to MSUM.”

Undeclared Records- It’s MSUM’s student run record label.

Giving these aspiring entertainers hands on experience, in the real world music industry.

Ryan Jackson- MSUM Associate Music Professor: “They need to be very well adjusted for what’s to come and I think we do that here very well.” Read the rest of this entry →

Music Industry graduate Troy McFarland, ’09, released twelve tracks mastered by his former instructor, Ryan Jackson, Music Industry, in Jackson’s home recording studio. Watch his latest single, a music video titled “Alone ft Tori Quinn.”

Instructor Ryan Jackson, center, tries some different adjustments to some music recorded by Jack Stenerson, right, as Niran Dangol watches and listens in the projects and studio production class at Minnesota State University Moorhead. The students are seniors at MSUM and use the studio to record their music. (Dave Wallis / The Forum)

By: Sam Benshoof, INFORUM

MOORHEAD – Last month, aspiring musician Rachel Jane released her first album of music.

Jane also appeared on “The Christopher Gabriel Show” on WDAY 970 AM to talk about and play some of her songs, and a few weeks later, she hosted a full CD release party at Studio 222 in Fargo.

There’s just one thing about Jane’s situation that was a little different than any other local musician trying to build up a fan base: The whole thing was a part of her studies.

A senior in the music industry program at Minnesota State University Moorhead, Jane organized, planned, booked and marketed the party. She also wrote and recorded her own music as well, which she describes as “folk-pop.” Read the rest of this entry →

By Jeannette Madden
Contributing Writer, High Plains Reader

Minnesota State University Moorhead is unique in offering an exceptional Music Industry program to students in the upper Midwest. The emphasis is on music, audio, business and liberal studies, and while taking an impressive group of courses and private instruction, students have the chance to explore a wide range of performance possibilities in a variety of musical styles.

The Music Industry program offers degrees in the following areas: Music Business: including courses in Accounting, Management and Marketing; Digital Audio/Imaging: including courses in Graphic Communication (web design, multimedia, etc.); and Film/Video: including courses in television and film production. Read the rest of this entry →

The Post Traumatic Funk Syndrome, a horn-based classic rock band, presents a live show and album release party Saturday, March 5th from 8 to 11 p.m. at the Hilton Garden Inn, 4351 17th Ave. S., Fargo. The CD was recorded and mixed by MSUM’s Ryan Jackson, a faculty member in the music department. It was mastered by MSUM alumnus Greg Reierson, owner of Rare Form Mastering in Minneapolis.

PTFS features musicians from the Tri-College system, including MSUM music department chair and faculty member Tom Strait on trumpet, Jon Rudolph, adjunct guitar instructor, Doug Neill, adjunct bass teacher and Jackson on vocals. The all-ages show is free; the disc is $10.

Ryan Jackson, a 1995 Minnesota State University Moorhead graduate who’s now an assistant professor of music/technology at MSUM, has been named the recipient of the 13^th annual Delmar G. Corrick Spirit and Vision Award. Jackson also owns Rj Ryan Productions, where he engineers and composes individual artist projects and custom musical compositions, and offers acoustical and technological consulting and installation to organizations, as well as professional audio facilities.

The award is presented by the faculty of MSUM’s Corrick Center for General Education to a graduate who exemplifies the spirit of Corrick, who retired in 1997 after 21 years at the university, 16 of them as director of the Corrick Center.

Corrick’s egalitarian vision of higher education and his belief in the potential of the human spirit prompted the Corrick Center to create an award in his honor.

An award ceremony honoring Jackson is scheduled at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 23 in MSUM’s King Hall Auditorium.

The Corrick Center is an alternative entry program at MSUM, established for students who don’t meet the university’s requirements for admission, but show promise to succeed in college.

Originally from Edgeley, N.D., Jackson is thankful for his experience with the Corrick Center and says that he owes much of his success to the faculty’s guidance.

“I had a friend who also had been admitted through the Corrick Center a few years earlier than me and he said it was the best thing that could happen,” Jackson said. “A lot of people have the misconception that the Corrick Center is easy. It’s not. It’s geared toward students who may not know how to study or may need an extra hand. If it were up to me, the Corrick Center would be a first year experience for all students.” Read the rest of this entry →