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Nice Questions and Bad Advice
Benjamin Whetsell
2024This project is a six-song EP called Nice Questions and Bad Advice, with related promotional materials (cover art, videos, and so on). The EP is essentially a solo project: I wrote all but one song, I produced all six songs, and I performed practically every instrument. The EP also represents a departure from how I’ve created music: these are the first lyrically complete songs I’ve ever created, and they’re produced almost exclusively with real, acoustic instruments (I used to identify as an electronic music producer). The EP deals obliquely with my previous career as a lawyer, and its central message is the power of music to heal: to turn experiences that are ugly and unrelatable into an experience that’s beautiful and relatable. Lyrically, the EP deals with cycles, music as such, mortality, looking back, concealment, and absurdity. Musically, the EP includes unusual song forms, odd phrase lengths, odd meters, non-diatonic harmony, and unusual production. In addition to honing my lyricism and songwriting, throughout the creation of this EP I learned about co-writing, vocal and drum production, and studio recording. A written reflection offers more detail. I intend to release the EP publicly by December 2024.
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Coretta the Musical
Akili Wynn-Beavers
2024The musical Coretta is a story that’s meant to shine a light on the woman behind Martin Luther King Jr., Coretta Scott King. Coretta was a determined woman who had her own dreams of singing center stage in the classical world. Then, she met Martin, and the spotlight shifted to him, forcing her and her dream backwards into the shadow of another. With this story, we aim to educate and share the importance of what Coretta did, what she gave up, and how it changed the way she had envisioned her life going. The idea for Coretta the musical was formed in October 2023, and has morphed into a story that we believe everybody can relate to. Whether faced with struggles of racism, sexism, marriage, peer pressure or even in school competitions, we have all experienced it in some shape or form, and we can all find our spotlight, just like Coretta.
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Title: Gravity
Bining Xu
2024Title: Gravity is a sci-fi video game project focusing on world building and art style exploration. As a student with background in literature and screenwriting, I have thought about a space opera for years. And this project is the start point. For utilizing skills I have learned in this program, visualize the story has became the focus point.
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Bedtime Stories
Miranda Xu
2024Bedtime Stories is an artist and producer project by Miranda Xu (artist name Xiranda). It is an EP that contains 5 songs that each tells a magical realism story. The stories feature animals like cats, horses, and chimpanzees, but they essentially explore the meaning of human existence and our relationship with our inner selves and the surrounding world.
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PostHuman Aesthetic
Ajun Yao
2024This EP, titled PostHuman Aesthetic, was inspired by my anxious period at BerkleeNYC. The emotions and pressures I experienced were also felt by my classmates, which led me to ponder how we can coexist with our own emotions. If we can learn to adapt to them, prevent any adverse effects, and use them to develop ourselves, we might achieve a new form of human evolution. In this sense, the "post-human" might evolve into a biological entity with some characteristics of animals or plants, creating a form I call "post-human aesthetic." From a technical perspective, I wrote a script for this imagined future world. I used different tracks to represent various facets of this world, with each song addressing a different real-life topic. These topics include reputation, family relationships, self-recognition, multiple personalities, and the world's scenes. Beyond the tracks, this concept EP requires visual content support, so I used AI to generate cover images based on my script. Throughout the project, I realized that emotion is a powerful tool for creation because it comes from the depths of your heart. The production skills I've learned during this process, such as arranging, mixing, and mastering, have been invaluable. Designing harmonies was the most challenging part of the process due to my limited music theory knowledge. However, this limitation has given the tracks a unique flavor. I might write more tracks to complete the concept album and further enrich this imagined world.
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Ka Makana
Kiarra Young
2024Blending of the genres of hawaiian reggae and r&b through rhythmic stabs and soulful vocals
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