Sound equipment donation advances Music Industry instruction
Immersing themselves in the cataloguing of donated sound equipment are (from front) are Music Industry seniors Yisel Fernandez, Mel Fajardo and Robert Adkins.
A milestone has been reached by SUNY Fredonia’s Music Industry program with the donation of a complete sound system – valued in excess of $10,000 – from the owners of a Sandusky, Ohio, concert venue.
Applied Professional Studies faculty members Armand Petri and Stuart Shapiro picked up the massive system that Reneta Barneva, who is a professor and interim chair of the Department of Applied Professional Studies, said will put the finishing touches on the Music Industry’s Live Sound and Touring venue housed in Thompson Hall.
The professional-grade equipment, donated by Dr. Vimal Shiv Kumar and his wife, LeAnn, consists of multiple speakers, sub woofers, amplifiers, equalizers, effects banks and stage lighting, together with the myriad items required for a large stage show.
Dr. Kumar transformed the former Lyman Harbor Entertainment and Event Center, which once featured national and international touring acts, into the Lyman Harbor Entertainment Complex. With concerts discontinued, all of the sound and lighting equipment previously used at the hall, adjacent to the Cedar Point amusement park, became available for purchase.
Assistant Professor Shapiro, working through channels with assistance from Timothy Weir, a Buffalo-based musician, colleague of his and a guest speaker in the Music Industry program, was able to persuade the Kumars to donate all of the sound equipment to the Applied Professional Studies program, a part of the School of Business.
“With this generous donation, our Music Industry program will be one of the best equipped, anywhere, for the hands-on experience that is so valuable to our students.” - Interim Dean of the School of Business Linda Hall
As soon as it became available, Mr. Petri, lecturer and multi-platinum record producer and Gospel Music Association Dove Award winner, who teaches the Concert Touring and Sound course, and Mr. Shapiro, “hightailed it” to Ohio for the pick-up, Dr. Barneva said.
The equipment completely filled a 15-foot rental truck, Shapiro recalled, and because of the sheer volume of the donation, it will take some time to test and catalog all of the items. Conducting that review are three student interns – Robert Adkins, a senior Music Industry and Business Administration major, from Buffalo; Melaney Fajardo, junior Music Industry and Business Administration major from Sunnyside, N.Y.; and Yisel Fernandez-Arevalo, senior Music Industry and Business Administration: Finance from Brooklyn.
Estimated value of the entire donation is somewhere in the $10,000-15,000 range, perhaps more, Shapiro remarked.
Thompson Hall Room W101 was renovated last summer to accommodate the needs of MUSB 470: Concert Touring and Sound, a required course for the Music Industry degree.
“With this generous donation, our Music Industry program will be one of the best equipped, anywhere, for the hands-on experience that is so valuable to our students,” said Interim Dean of the School of Business Linda Hall.
