UCI Sound Design is Recruiting MFA students!

It's January, which means that UCI Sound Design is officially recruiting for our MFA class of 2026.  Have you been thinking about grad school for sound design, we want to hear from you!

If you think that a Sound Design MFA may be the next step in your career and/or creative life, we think you should give UCI a look.  We're proud of our program and the students who study with us, and we want to talk to you about what we can offer your education and whether we might be a good fit!

If you're interested in learning about UCI Sound Design, here's what you should do:

1. email Prof. Vinnie Olivieri at olivieri@uci.edu to introduce yourself and set up a time to chat
2. head over to our program website to read about the program.
3. bookmark the application page for all UCI graduate admissions.

Drop us a line!  We'd love to chat with you!

And, for the algorithm, here are some photos of UCI MFAs doing awesome things in our program.

Students at Meow Wolf's Omega Mart on a field trip for their Themed Entertainment Class.

Kissing the duck brings good luck.

Walking from building to building on a tour of the Meyer Sound Lab facilities.

Students, alumni, faculty, staff, and a significant other at our annual Holiday Party!

Was the Escape Room trip part of Themed Entertainment research or team-building?  Why not both?

Students, faculty, staff, and alumni at USITT's 2022 conference.

A student mixes on L-ISA at L'Acoustics' North American HQ.

 

UCI Sound Design: class of 2025

Recruiting students into the MFA Sound Design program is always tough for us.  We can only take two students each year, and there are always terrific students out there that we have to decline. This year was particularly difficult - the number of exceptional candidates was four times higher than it usually is, which made our decision much more difficult.

That said, Mike and I, along with the rest of the program are delighted to welcome our incoming students for this fall: Melanie Lopez and Jeremiah Turner.  Melanie and Jeremiah stood out to us with exceptional combinations of talent, creativity, curiosity, professionalism, and experience.  We're looking forward to working with them for the next three years!

I asked each of them to submit a short bio, so here they are, in their own words:

UCI Sound MFA, class of 2024

Every year when we interview potential MFA students for our Sound Design program, Mike and I always lament how hard it is to choose just two students from a qualified pool.  There are generally three or four students that are strong candidates, and it can be an excruciating decision to select which students to invite to join us for three years.  Part of selecting two students means necessarily saying 'no' to many more, including the few top-ranked alternates.  

This year was much harder, due mostly to COVID-19.  Because our industry is basically at a standstill, many folks are deciding that now is a good time to get their degree.  The number of qualified interested students shot up 500% this year. Instead of a pool of three or four top candidates, we had nine.  And, while in a normal year, we'd invite those three or four applicants to campus to sit in on classes, meet with faculty/staff/students, tour the facilities, and generally get to know us, this year UCI's campus is virtually shut down to outsiders.  So, we pivoted, scheduling Zoom sessions so that all nine top applicants could sit in on classes, meet with faculty, staff, students, get a portfolio review, etc.  It was a bit of a logistical nightmare and something I hope we don't have to repeat next year, but it gave us a chance to meet so many students that we'd never have gotten the chance to meet before. 

It also made our decisions harder, because while the number of excellent applicants increased, the number of people we could accept didn't.  We still had to choose two.  So while we're thrilled with the two women who are joining us this fall, we also want to publicly say that we wish we could have taken more of you!  Those applicants who are reading this - we wish you all the best and look forward to seeing your careers grow!

This year, Mike and I are thrilled to welcome to the UCI Sound Design MFA program two extraordinary designers.  I've asked them to write their own bios.  Here they are:

Meet our incoming students!

We had a terrific group of applicants this year apply to the sound design MFA program, and it was a tough decision to choose which two we'd invite into the program. But, Mike and I are excited to introduce the class of 2021 at UCI Sound! Elisheva and Garrett are both remarkable artists, and we're looking forward to having them join us for three years of intense development.  Stay tuned for great things from them!

Elisheva Anisman recently graduated from Western Washington University where she studied theater, audio recording, and storytelling, in addition to sound designing a plethora of productions. She is passionate about how and why stories get told and how sound can help communicate a narrative. Since graduating she has worked as a sound designer or engineer for a variety of local companies in northwest Washington and has experimented with performing her own music.

Garrett Gagnon is incredibly excited to be joining the Sound Design program at UCI! He has lived in the Southwest Michigan area his whole life, and can’t wait to make the trek to the West Coast. He has been a musician (vocal, piano, drums) his whole life, and has always been able to find work that pulls from his strengths. He has worked at two different recording studios, and engineered live and studio albums in various genres, primarily focusing in jazz and classical. Garrett has also built a relationship with many theatres and schools in the area, and has been resident Sound Designer at Farmers Alley Theatre for the past few years. He cannot wait to start exploring what he can bring to the Sound Design program at UCI!

UCI Drama Design poster

Happy New Year!

Here at UCI Sound, we're getting ready for a busy recruiting season, and part of that includes this brand-new poster!  Check it out:

It features two of our Sound Design MFA students - Ning Guo and Andrew Tarr. Scenic Design student Fernando Penaloza is in the center of the image.

We're sending hard copies of this poster to a bunch of great undergraduate schools, but we can't send them everywhere. So, consider this your own personal copy!

Welcome to our MFA, class of 2020!

UCI Drama is excited to present our two incoming students for next year: Hunter Moody and Jack Bueermann!  

Hunter is native Arkansan, and he first discovered the fascinating world of sound design in his undergraduate years. After graduation, he set out for eastern Kentucky to join the 2013 summer season of Jenny Wiley Theatre as the A2. With the advent of potential full-time work in 2015, he was promoted to resident sound and graphic media designer. He has since designed the sound for and engineered over thirty productions between JWT and the budding University of Pikeville Theatre program. Hunter has developed extensive experience in educational theatre, working with the Jenny Wiley Footlights Theatre, a pre-professional TFYA program, and guest lecturing at the University of Pikeville. Outside of theatre, he has designed sound for dance, voice-over, and competition, with experience in audio engineering for concert venues, church events, and live comedy. His research interests include the historical contexts of music, the psychoanalytic effects of sound upon memory and mood, and innovations in audio production technology. In his free time, Hunter is an avid video gamer and loves (trying) to bake. He has a BFA in Theatrical Design/Technology from Arkansas State University.

Jack recently graduated from the University of Redlands, where he designed multiple major productions. Since graduating, he has worked professionally as an assistant sound designer in the Los Angeles area. More recently, he has been working as the A1 at the San Diego Repertory Theatre where he mixed the world premier of Hershey Felder's Our Great Tchaikovsky. Jack is passionate about theater and story-telling through sound, and is excited to collaborate with the talented faculty and students at UCI.

We had a number of excellent applicants this year, and Mike and I are both thrilled and Jack and Hunter will be joining us in the fall.  Be on the lookout for great things from them both!

UCI Sound will NOT be attending URTA this year.

We previously suggested this, but now here's the official word: UCI Sound Design will definitely NOT be attending the 2016 URTA reviews.

We are, however, actively recruiting for graduate students. So, if you are interested in the Sound Design program at UCI, please do not expect to meet us at URTA. Instead, please reach out directly to either Head of Sound Design Mike Hooker or Head of Design Vincent Olivieri. Both of us are happy to correspond with you as you work to determine which schools are most appropriate for your application this winter.

We look forward to hearing from you!

UCI Sound will (probably) NOT be at the 2016 URTA Reviews

When prospective theatre design students start researching grad schools, they often very quickly find their way to URTA.  URTA plays a number of important roles in the American Theater, and one of the most visible is that they host a series of audition & interview sessions where actors, directors, designers, and stage managers can see and be seen by a large number of MFA training programs.

UCI participates in the URTA review program, typically sending faculty of all areas out to meet potential students.  But, this year, for a couple of reasons, the Sound Design program will probably not be attending the URTA review.

If you are interested in the Sound Design program at UCI, please do not expect to meet us at URTA. Instead, please reach out directly to either Head of Sound Design Mike Hooker or Head of Design Vincent Olivieri. Both of us are happy to correspond with you as you work to determine which schools are most appropriate for your application this winter.

Good luck in your search this year! We'll miss seeing you at URTAs, but we look forward to your emails and correspondence!