<b>Culminating Experience for Seniors: A Snapshot of One Senior's Progress</b>

2/22/2007

All seniors at Millbrook are required to complete a Culminating Experience during their senior year. The purpose of the program is to provide seniors with an opportunity to develop their intellectual independence in a particular discipline or disciplines. They are then required to present their findings in a formal presentation to a panel of faculty evalutators and peers.

Once the subject of their Culminating Experience has been approved by the relevant academic department(s), each student is required to spend a minimum of 15 hours researching, developing, and refining the project over the course of the year.

One senior, Marcello Dubaz, has begun to develop his project which will he will present to a panel in May. His question: how does a recording session work? On the weekend of February 17th, he began his research by recording Elaine Miller’s band in the Chelsea Morrison Theatre. Marcello has studied piano and marimba with Ms. Miller, and she was happy to make arrangements for this recording.

Initially, Marcello has focused on learning about the various types of microphones and microphone positioning. Five songs were recorded in all, and Marcello tweaked the instruments, microphones, and amplifiers in order to achieve the best sound possible. In the coming months he will edit these recordings to produce a final mix and record another band as well as some individual artist's performances. Ultimately, in the near term he expects to have a few recordings he can be very proud of in addtion to a better understanding of the various technical components of music recording. Long term - he hopes to pursue a career in the music industry after college.

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