Hey there Everyone!

The second year students are three weeks away from our final semester before the summer semester in LA. We’re all currently preparing our scores for our first recording session which is happening the last week of school at CRC studios right down the street from us. We’ve had a wonderful semester studying under Heather McIntosh, and now for the past few weeks we have been working with Joe Kraemer, composer of Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation; Jack Reacher; & The Way of the Gun. Joe has been such a great teacher these past few weeks by going through spotting the films that he has worked on as well as giving us advice on our own work to a film he has worked on himself. He even brought in a bunch of videos and photos of him conducting in his recording sessions which was pretty incredible and inspiring to see. Here’s a photo of Joe below while he’s teaching our class!

Other than Joe and Heather, we’ve also had Dan Asma of Buddha Jones Trailers, which has dealt with Fantastic Beasts, Storks, Moana, Sully, & Suicide Squad, and Jack Wall, composer of Mass Effect and Call of Duty. It was especially great to have Jack with us, as I’ve listened to his music for a few years now for Mass Effect. He went in depth about the process of game scoring as well as his music and Dan discussed the business of doing trailers for films. Jack Wall

Dan Asma

Outside of the classroom myself and many of the second years are starting to wonder what exactly we will be doing when we get out of the program. We have an amazing opportunity of getting an internship during our summer session in LA, and we all want to make sure it’s just right for us. Although all of us are attending the program to compose music for media, there have been graduates in the past that decided that they wanted to do an internship in something else, but still within the industry. There’s a point in your schooling that you may feel the hump that is the transition to being a professional composer. I currently have been going through this, and I know a few other colleagues of mine have also felt the same thing at one point or another. For all you prospective students, know that this may happen to you within your own education. It’s scary, but I assure you, the place to have moments like this is at Columbia College Chicago. Kubilay Uner, the director of the program, keeps his doors open for his students for anything and everything. He’s not only the director of the program, or a teacher, he’s someone that will sit down with you and discuss whatever is on your mind to keep you motivated and passionate. He is truly there for us every step of the way. If you’re applying for the program, or if you’re just curious about it, I suggest shooting him an email, and you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.

Now I’m off to write more material for this upcoming recording session! Good luck in your applications everyone!