Page 11 - Flathead Beacon // 8.26.15

NEWS
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Inspiring Flathead Artists with Technology
FVCC to offer digital music course with SnowGhost owner, producer, and engineer Brett Allen
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BY CLARE MENZEL OF THE BEACON
Flathead Valley Community College students can enroll this fall semester in “Introduction to Digital Music,” a three- credit course with guest instructor Brett Allen, owner of Whitefish-based produc- tion company SnowGhost Music. Allen has produced and engineered music for artists including The Avett Brothers, Death Cab for Cutie, and Dan Deacon.
The seminar will examine how tech- nology has influenced the ways we create, consume, and share music. Allen’s stu- dents will study the history of mechan- ical and recorded music by exploring music streaming’s democratization of the industry, the disposability of con- temporary music, and our mastery over computers, among other topics.
“I feel like we’re coming out of what I call the dark ages of computer music,” Allen said. “When we first started, we didn’t know how to use them so we let them make the music for us. Now we’re getting more sophisticated ... and musi- cians can focus on being human again.”
Allen hopes his students will find this as empowering as he does. Now that musicians control technology, it can be put to so much good use, especially some- where like the Flathead Valley. He imag- ines that, maybe 10 years down the line, when musicians in the Flathead have harnessed the full power of technology and social networks, the valley will sup- port a first-class musical hub.
Brett Allen, pictured in the SnowGhost music studio on Sunday, March 16, 2014. GREG LINDSTROM | FLATHEAD BEACON
What does it mean to you?
“I really believe that technology tran- scends location,” he said. “We can live amidst the beautiful wilderness, and we can create opportunity here without having to build a huge infrastructure or tech parks or industrial warehouses. You don’t have to live in Nashville, LA, or New York. You just have to innovate. We just have to come together to share ideas – that’s all those cities have on us.”
A major component of the course, which favors hands-on learning expe- riences over lectures, will be producing music with handheld devices – the first
lesson in the accessibility today’s tech- nology affords. Neither the students nor the FVCC has to invest thousands of dol- lars on equipment. The class will simply use smartphone apps.
The course is capped at 15 students, and the textbook is Stanley Alten’s Audio and Media, a publication Allen says he has referred to countless times in his professional career. Currently enrolled Flathead Valley Community College students can contact Nicole Sanford for more information at 756-4813.
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Flathead High, Local Businesses Team Up For Student Build School construction class will begin work on a full-size home on the outskirts of Kalispell on Sept. 1
BY JUSTIN FRANZ OF THE BEACON
More than two-dozen Flathead High School students are trading in their books and notepads for hammers and nails this fall as part of the school’s new construction class. But these students won’t be busy working in the school’s shop; they’ll be in the field building a full- size house on the outskirts of Kalispell.
School officials say the class will give students valuable skills to enter the workforce after graduation without hav- ing to go to college.
“They will get to see every aspect of a home construction project,” said voca- tional instructor Brock Anderson.
The class is part of a collaboration between Flathead School District 5, Western Building Center, Hammerquist Casalegno LLC, Glacier Bank, the Flat- head Building Association, Flathead Electric and the Montana Contractors Association.
According to Anderson, who has been with the high school for eight years and previously taught in Great Falls, in 2012, 53 percent of all job openings in Montana were for middle-skilled workers. And sta- tistics from the state suggest that in the next decade 50 percent of all openings will be aimed at those middle-skilled workers in various trade professions.
About a decade ago, Flathead High School students worked with Flathead Valley Community College students on a home construction project but that collaboration eventually fizzled. This class will be exclusively for high school students and will meet five days a week at the building site located on Corporate Drive.
Anderson said the class has gotten a huge amount of help from various spon- sors, including Glacier Bank, which has offered a loan to get the housing proj- ect off the ground, and Western Build- ing Center, which is donating or offering
supplies at cost to the school district. Ty Shanks with the building center said the class would help business like his all across the valley.
“All of us in the building industry are desperate to fill positions with young, excited and smart kids,” Shanks said. “Our industry is getting older and there are not a lot of young people getting into it.”
School officials hope to complete the house next spring and sell it soon after. The money received from the sale will go into a newly created nonprofit organi- zation that will support the class in the future.
The construction of the two-story, 1,800-square-foot home will begin on Sept. 3, but a groundbreaking ceremony will be held on Sept. 1 at 10:30 a.m. at 663 Corporate Drive. For more information visit www.westerbuildingcenter.com/ student-home.
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AUGUST 26, 2015 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM
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