Institute of Entertainment, Music, and Media Arts

IEMMA provides students, regardless of major, opportunities to learn in a real-world, experience-driven environment. Whether students end up being performers in a recording studio, hospital, church, or concert hall, or if they are studio engineers, producers, marketing agents, or record label executives, every one of them must develop the skills to interface with one another.

Examples of these opportunities include:

Orchestra in the Studio
With Jay Dudt & Rachel Stegeman

This immersive orchestral recording session helps students experience the rigorous environment of the film sound stage studio and features five-time GRAMMY Award-winning sound engineer Jay Dudt, as well as violinist Rachel Stegeman, who has performed on hundreds of commercial music recordings and movie soundtracks.

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Commercial Music for Performers
with Jesse Naus and Mark Koch

Recording engineer and owner of Red Caiman Media, Jesse Naus, and local jazz/rock guitarist, Mark Koch, present a seminar about commercial music for students to learn how to perform in a recording studio environment.

IEMMA is an immersive experience for our students, from the music technologist to the performer. Sound Stage Sessions is a program within IEMMA in which our technology students have opportunities to prepare, setup, run, and strike real-world recording sessions of our performing ensembles in the weeks prior to their performances. In addition, ensemble performers learn how to conduct themselves in a recording studio environment. The recordings will then be mixed and mastered by our students—under the guidance of our GRAMMY Award-winning sound recording faculty—so that they can be played back and critically reviewed by the ensemble director and the student performers in advance of the concert.

Sound Stage Sessions provide unmatched potential for students to learn and hone their skills behind their instrument or recording console, all while developing skills they will need to interact with other professionals as they move into their careers. Regardless of which side of the microphone students find themselves on, they will develop critical listening skills while learning how to interpret and implement the artistic requests of producers, conductors, and directors to create finished products of the highest level for live performance, distribution, and broadcast.

A typical Sound Stage Session features setup and recording of an ensemble's rehearsal several weeks prior to a scheduled concert, with a deliverable recording for critical review one week later, enabling the group to have rehearsal time prior to the concert to address performance issues that became apparent through the recording.

Following review and rehearsal, IEMMA students will be on-hand to setup and record the ensemble's live performance.

Through IEMMA's forthcoming record label, these recordings can be made available for purchase, streaming, and download, and it is all made possible by students who facilitate the IEMMA process. This brings the true meaning behind IEMMA—from the mind to the audience—full circle. In addition, listen for IEMMA Live and Studio Broadcasts on WQED-FM radio (89.3 FM/Stream Live) and WDSR (Duquesne Student Radio).