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The Power of Music: Performance, Technology and Collaboration

This is a Music Subject Spotlight with Dr Leslie Gaston-Bird from City, University of London. An interactive, cinematic course taster experience to allow students to gain insights into what it's like to study Music.

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In this fascinating Subject Spotlight as Dr Leslie Gaston-Bird highlights the power of music through performance, technology, and collaboration. In episode one, Leslie outlines the function of a recording studio and defines key attitudes, roles, and behaviours that separate professional recording studios from the rest. Leslie also details the importance of critical listening from the perspective of a performer and an engineer. In episode two, Leslie discusses the role of creativity in making music and lays out key shifts that have changed how creativity looks in a recording studio, such as the impacts of technological advancements. Leslie also looks at the relationship between audiences, genre, and media. In episode three, Leslie explores the technical aspects of microphones and frequencies, explaining their uses and impact on music. Leslie also offers some tips and tricks to help maintain creativity and use microphones and frequencies to your advantage in the recording studio. In the final episode, Leslie discusses why artists cover other songs and analyses this from a creative, audience, and technical perspective. Leslie then sets you a critical listening activity where you’ll listen to different versions of a song and consider what makes each version different.

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About City, University of London

Established by royal charter in 1836, The University of London is the third-oldest university in England. It has around 48,000 distance learning and campus-based students, making it the largest university by number of students in the UK. The University of London is a federation of 17 independent member institutions of outstanding global reputation, ranging from larger universities such as UCL or King’s College London to smaller specialised institutions such as the Royal Academy of Music or the Courtauld Institute of Art. Charles Dickens even termed it the 'People's University'!

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Dr Leslie Gaston-Bird

Dr. Leslie Gaston-Bird CAS, MPSE is Seniour Lecturer at City, University of London and President-Elect of the Audio Engineering Society and a Pro Tools | Dolby Professional Avid Certified Instructor and Dante Level-3 Certified audio engineer specialising in rerecording mixing and sound editing. She is author of the book Women in Audio, part of the AES Presents series published by Focal Press (Routledge). She is an Avid Certified Dolby Atmos Professional and Dante Level-3 Certified audio engineer working as a freelance re-recording mixing (dubbing) and sound editing under the banner Mix Messiah Productions. As Supervising Sound Editor and Re-Recording Mixer, she was also nominated for an MPSE Golden Reel award for Outstanding Achievement in Sound for a Non-Theatrical Feature for her work on Publish or Perish, a dark comedy by David Liban. She is also a voting member of the Recording Academy (The Grammys®) and its P&E  (Producers and Engineers) Wing. She earned her PhD from the University of Surrey for her dissertation "Immersive but not Inclusive", for which she received support from Innovate UK's Women in Innovation programme.  From 2016-2018, she was Vice President, Western Region (US & Canada) for the AES, followed by a term as Governor-at-Large. She was the inaugural chair of the AES Diversity and Inclusion (now DEI) Committee.  Prior to that, she was a tenured Associate Professor of Recording Arts at the University of Colorado Denver (2005-2018) where she also served as Chair of the Department of Music and Entertainment Industry Studies. She led groups of Recording Arts students in study abroad courses in England, Germany, and Italy which included participation in AES Conventions. Leslie has done research on audio for planetariums, multichannel audio on Blu-Ray, and a has presented several papers at AES conferences, incuding a comparison of multichannel codecs that was published in the AES Journal (Gaston, L. and Sanders, R. (2008), "Evaluation of HE-AAC, AC-3, and E-AC-3 Codecs", Journal of the Audio Engineering Society of America, 56(3)). 

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Remarkable & relatable academics

Learn from some of the UK's finest and most decorated academics as they give you a genuine, insightful, and engaging experience of studying their courses at their universities.

Interactive quizzes and activities

Have a go at fascinating interactive quizzes and activities, then get meaningful and intuitive feedback from the academics to see how you've done.

Content to enhance students university applications

Hear direct from the academics what's expected of you in your university application, and the things you can do to improve your chances of getting on the course you most desire!

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is a Subject Spotlight?

Subject Spotlights fuse education and entertainment to bring you the new way of researching your university options.

Entirely free and available on-demand, you can choose to engage with the content in the way that best suits you - whether that's in bite-sized chunks or in binge-sessions!

Why should I check out Subject Spotlights?

Get a real, representative impression of what pursuing a subject at university is actually like, so that you can make the right decision for you.

Stand out from the competition by completing a Subject Spotlight to gain the most relevant references and evidence for your personal statement.

Who is this Spotlight for?

This subject spotlight is made for students aged 16 and above, that are considering applying to University, particularly to study the subject in the title, or similar areas.

How should I talk about completing a Subject Spotlight on my UCAS application?

Completing a Subject Spotlight shows the university you're applying to that you've taken time outside of school to engage with relevant content.

The easiest way to include it would be to briefly mention one or two things you learned from it and how/why those learnings have furthered your desire to study the subject. We don't want to prescribe an answer because it's your personal statement but this is a good starting point!