It's here! We're so excited to share this first look at Studio Y Sessions. Make sure you click HD for the best quality. #ComingSoon #StudioYSessions
Posted by Studio Y Sessions on Thursday, October 19, 2017
Art students can display their work in the lobby of the HFAC, but music students in the past haven’t had a way to publicly display their work. Studio Y Sessions is changing that.
Studio Y Sessions is a series of videos showcasing BYU music students’ solo, instrumental and small band performances.
Students take the roles of performers, production staff, and live audience members in creating a small video concert much like NPR Tiny Desk Concerts.
BYU music students Garon Brett, Mallory Wynne, Zach Froelich and Emily Applegarth created Studio Y Sessions to fill the hole they saw in the BYU music program.
“You look right now at the School of Music’s online presence and the audio/visual content of students performing is almost nonexistent,” Froelich said.
Froelich said Brett first approached him with the idea for Studio Y Sessions when they met over a year ago. The idea was to showcase content created by students in every discipline of the school of music.
“We want this to be inspirational,” Froelich said. “We wanted to show this other side to Mormon performers.”
Froelich said it’s easy to assume Mormon performers are exactly like the Osmond family, but Froelich believes most BYU performers are just like anybody else.
“We’re very normal people making incredible music, but we are driven by our desire to serve Christ,” Froelich said.
Brett said one video alone cannot fully capture all Studio Y Sessions’ capability, so Studio Y Sessions’ first three videos will premiere together.
“We want to show the variety and uniqueness of these different artists,” Brett said.
Brett said one primary road block Studio Y Sessions faces is the inevitable end of college careers. The creators are juniors and seniors in their undergraduate programs, so time is not on their side.
But Brett said he is confident in the program’s success because of their plan.
“In a great project that has longevity, creating a structure that’s not just driven by people but a structure people can be placed in to keep it going is really important,” Brett said.
Wynne said Studio Y Sessions is working on organizing the program to create longevity and sustainability so others can create content after the creators of Studio Y graduate.
Filming one segment of Studio Y Sessions can take a few hours. There are three camera operators, a sound mixer, a boom operator, performers and a live studio audience of up to 15 people who participate in a small room of the HFAC.
Wynne said everything needed to create content for the Studio Y Sessions project has been funded through outside grant money.
Studio Y Sessions will be filming new content beginning next semester. The first three videos of Studio Y Sessions will be published at the end of this month or early in 2018.
