[caption id="attachment_94213" align="alignnone" width="300"]On Feb. 4, The Conservatory of Recording Arts & Sciences Opens its Doors to Prospective Students; Three 2017 Grammy-Nominated CRAS Grads Will Be On Hand On Feb. 4, The Conservatory of Recording Arts & Sciences Opens its Doors to Prospective Students; Three 2017 Grammy-Nominated CRAS Grads Will Be On Hand[/caption]   Gilbert, Ariz., Feb. 2, 2017 - The Conservatory of Recording Arts & Sciences (CRAS; www.cras.edu), the premier institution for audio engineering education, will be opening the doors to its Gilbert, Ariz. campus (1205 N. Fiesta Blvd.) to prospective students, parents, and the media on Saturday, February 4 from 10am – 4pm (click here to RSVP). Three 2017 Grammy-Nominated CRAS graduates will be on hand for the Open House, and they will also be part of the “2017 Grammy CRAS Panel” held for current CRAS students the evening of Feb. 2. “There are incredible opportunities out there, and we are dedicated in helping our students learn to harness their craft here at CRAS,” said Kirt Hamm, CRAS administrator. “That’s why, multiple times per year, we invite prospective students and their parents to attend our open house events where they can meet and speak one-on-one with our internship team, faculty, staff, students and grads. They will also have the opportunity to see and participate in live demos in our studios, Live Sound Venue, labs, and classrooms.” CRAS wants to give them an idea of what’s out there first hand so they know what to expect when they hit the open job market. Besides the school’s mandatory internship program, getting its students in touch with our graduates who are either working for others, or who have made the leap into self employment, is huge. “That’s what this panel is about in our upcoming Open House,” Hamm continued. “Continued education, networking, and learning what it takes for going out on one’s own by those who have done it already is of enormous value for any student.” Members of the graduate panel include:
  • Ike Schultz: mix assistant Engineer to 8-Time Grammy-winning mix engineer Manny Marroquin at Larrabee Studios; Ike has been credited on projects from a variety of artists including Kanye West, Adele, Rihanna, Justin Bieber, Meghan Trainor, Calvin Harris and many others. He has also received credit on 21 2017 Grammy-nominated albums, songs, and performances.
  • Nik Karpen: mixing & recording engineer in Los Angeles; interned at the esteemed Conway Recording and Cello Studios; he was hired on as staff at Cello after his internship. Nik has spent 10 years under the mentorship of iconic mixer Chris Lord-Alge, working with him on nearly 2,000 songs from the likes of Green Day, Keith Urban, Echosmith, Rise Against, Carrie Underwood, Bruce Springsteen, My Chemical Romance, Cher, Joe Cocker, Steven Tyler, Aerosmith, Dwight Yoakam, Stevie Nicks, Fleetwood Mac, and Cage the Elephant, among many others.
  • Jared Hirshland: interned at Bombshelter Studios in LA.; during the three years he spent there he moved up to engineer, and had the chance to work with DethKlok, Stone Temple Pilots and many others; then went on to work on NBC's The Voice for the first two seasons as an engineer; worked with Dave Cooley at Elysian Masters and learned how to master; he has since worked with artists such as Madlib, Anderson Paak, Birds of Tokyo, Ziggy Marley; and many more. He has engineered and mastered multiple Grammy-nominated records.
“CRAS gave me the tools I needed to have a head start in my career,” said Hirshland. “I did a lot of research on the CRAS instructors, the students who were successful, and the curriculum, and decided that it was a good place to go to expand my knowledge,” Schultz said. “At CRAS I learned the vocabulary of the engineering side of music. That, to me, was the greatest value I received from attending.” Added Nik Karpen, “I’d dabbled in recording before but I realized on the first day at CRAS that I didn’t know anything. That was really exciting because there was a lot to learn. I really appreciated the hands-on training with the equipment: learning how it works and how to interface it all together, the technical background, the fact that in less than a year I’m in an internship where I walk into a studio and feel confident with the equipment.” At the February 4 Open House, guests will be able to interact with CRAS faculty and get a taste of the curriculum and the state-or-the-art audio gear spread throughout its numerous classrooms as well as its 42-foot mobile broadcast unit. They will also be able to participate in live demos in many of these real world audio recording studios, Live Sound Venue, and labs. The Conservatory of Recording Arts & Sciences is composed of two nearby campuses in Gilbert and Tempe, Ariz. A CRAS education includes broadcast audio, live sound, film and TV audio, music, and video game audio, all taught by award-winning instructors who have all excelled in their individual fields, including sound reinforcement, audio recording and production, digital recording, troubleshooting/maintenance, and music business. CRAS structured programs and highly qualified teaching staff provide a professional and supportive atmosphere, which is complemented by its small class sizes allowing for individual instruction and assistance for students in engineering audio recordings. CRAS has been providing quality vocational training in audio recording for more than three decades. The curriculum and equipment are constantly being updated to keep pace with the rapid advancements in the music and sound recording industries. CRAS’ course offerings and subject matter have always centered around the skills and knowledge necessary for students’ success in the audio recording industries. The 11-month program is designed to allow every student access to learn and train in all of the Conservatory’s studios which are comprised with state-of-the-art audio recording and mixing gear, the same equipment used in today’s finest studios and remote broadcast facilities, including Pro Tools 12, API Legacy consoles, SSL AWS consoles, Studer Vista consoles, and much more. All students must complete a 280-hour industry internship to graduate from the Master Recording Program II that may ultimately lead to industry employment. Currently, two CRAS graduates have been nominated for 2017 Grammy Awards. In addition, 32 CRAS graduates worked on 101 2017 Grammy-nominated albums and songs across numerous categories. “We want everyone to see, hear, and feel how our 11-month program focuses exclusively on what a student needs to know to begin living their passion in any one of the many facets of the recording arts,” explained Hamm. For more information on the Conservatory of Recording Arts & Sciences, please visit www.cras.edu, contact Kirt Hamm, administrator, at 1-866-757-3059, or email to info@cras.edu. About The Conservatory of Recording Arts & Sciences Based in the heart of The Valley of the Sun with two campuses in Gilbert and Tempe, Ariz., The Conservatory of Recording Arts & Sciences (CRAS) is one of the country’s premier institutions for audio education. The Conservatory has developed a unique and highly effective way to help the future audio professional launch their careers in the recording industry and other related professional audio categories. -30-