Hello! My name is Chase and I am a '25 from South Carolina. I'm currently considering studying more film scoring and video game composition to learn about writing music for movies and games! But when I'm not hanging out with friends or doing classwork, you can find me composing music. I'm involved in the Dartmouth College Wind Ensemble (DCWE), Dartmouth Chamber Orchestra (DCO), and the fraternity Zeta Psi.
As someone who did not know the ins and outs of marine policy, I loved learning about aspects of the blue economy. This class encourages us to be aware of the human aspect of marine problems regarding coastal erosion, pollution, and climate change. Professor Webster is the coolest!
I could not recommend this class enough to anyone who goes to this school! Professor Beaudoin has truly influenced me as both a musician and a student. We learn the music from the 1800's to present day including famous composers like Tchaikovsky, but also music by Beyonce and even the music of Dartmouth's professors. This is much more than a music history class. It is a class about music, our lives, and exploring the concept of sonder through musical lens.
If you're scared of coding or have a love for music, this is the class for you. This computer science class is cross-listed with music to teach students how to code using a language called processing to learn the basic principles of design through coding. We created several projects throughout the term, but Professor Casey really taught me that there is more to music than I think. For my final, I created an interactive keyboard which created a visual effect for each key that created music which made it a musical instrument! Genuinely such an amazing and fun class that I think people should consider.
Although this class is only offered during the F.I.R.E. study abroad program, it was such an amazing class. I absolutely adored having Professor Canepa teach us about Italy from its politics, music, food, and much much more. This class taught me hands on what Italian culture is through visits to famous landmarks, food tastings, or tours of Italian regions. If you don't want to study abroad, I suggest taking a class with Professor Canepa because she truly is one of my favorite professors I have had yet.
FallHanover, New Hampshire
I was on an off term, but decided to live on campus to join a fraternity and work in town. I took the time to write music for one of my friend's short films and learned a lot about the film music industry.
Dr. Moseley has been one of my most favorite professors by far. I have loved taking this class to divulge into my musical passion through creating music and learning about ways to create music. If you are interested in taking a music class, I highly recommend Dr. Moseley if you find a class with him that interests you!
I took this class with composer Miguel Kertsman who was incredibly knowledgeable in every type of compositional technique that I wanted. I studied electronic music composition with him to understand music digital signal processing better.
Although I'm not a fan of reading literature for the classroom, this class completely changed the way I perceive literature. I adored this class with Prof. Hollister as it engaged with the dissections of film, novels, and short stories regarding how humanity views the end of the world.
I took an off-term this Fall, but I decided to sit in on a class on how to arrange music for strings and woodwinds! After many hours of long work, I had a piece performed and recorded by professional musicians that I worked on in the class!
This has to be arguably one of my favorite classes I have taken at Dartmouth with one of the most qualified and talented professors! Throughout the term, I mixed eight different songs of all different genres and learned the ins and outs of sound engineering. This means figuring out the best ways to create and produce music in the industry. Now, I feel confident publishing my own music and have started helping others publish theirs too by working on their projects!
Jodie Mack's "History of Visual Music" truly changed my Dartmouth career. In their class, students learn about the ways artists has dealt with the intersection of sound and sight through film, sculpture, and live performance. Throughout the term, students present two films or performances of their own creative works. Now, Professor Mack is one of my advisors for my thesis which is a long-form piece of visual music!
SummerGreer, SC
During this Summer, I spent time at home with my parents while teaching at a high school marching band. I took a lot of time to write music to prepare my composition portfolio for grad school applications and took time to visit friends before we graduate!
Throughout this year, I am working on a film entitled "Queer Idyll." You can read more about the senior fellowship and my project on the blog, or at the link on above. My favorite part of my research and project this term has been visiting farms owned or cared for by queer individuals. I have witness so many amazing stories, beautiful locations, and friendly people!
The Jones Media Center (JMC) hosts the library's annual 48-hour film contest every fall term! This event encourages all levels of student filmmakers to create a short film within 48 hours using a specific prompt and prop given by the library staff. Students can form teams or stay solo to make any type of film they wish! Although I adored participating in a group last year, this year, I decided to make a film by myself within the 48 hours as I wanted to work on my own timeline.
To clarify, I am not a film major, but this has been one of my favorite experiences that Dartmouth has brought to me. If I had not done the challenge last year, I would have never considered doing it this year, and this is what Dartmouth is about to me! As someone who studies film scoring—writing the music for movies—this process even helped me be comfortable producing a film for my music senior thesis, which I'll describe in another blog post. Since Dartmouth is a liberal arts college, students are introduced to many new and influential hobbies, and filmmaking is now one of mine.
This is one of the locations that appears in my short film! It is the top floor of Wilder Hall where Dartmouth's physics labs are.
"Blow It Up, Start Again" is the title of my short film! This is the title screen for the film.
For this year, the prompt that had to be included was "Before we begin, please sign here. And here." In my film, I had this text appear at the start of the film with someone in a suit signing an electronic contract via coding. The prop that every group had to include was a green, hand-painted pinecone. I used the pinecone as a grenade, adding metallic scraps to it, to guide the central plot of my film. After the contract is signed, the person in the suit walks down the hallway as eerie music lurks in the background. When the individual goes near the camera, they pull the grenade and drop it to release party music and lights. Instantly, the film restarts with the house music and lights to suggest a total reset with glitching editing. For me, the film encourages the idea of starting over to have fun and enjoy what is happening at the moment.
In total, ten groups submitted films, which ended with a film screening in the library on Sunday night with pizza and drinks. Personally, it was amazing to witness the creative approaches to everyone's use of the prompt and props alongside the talent of so many newly made friends. Additionally, I was happy to see many of my friends show up to see the short film that I made within the two days. Now, I have a self-directed short film with original music to add to my portfolio which is amazing!
Walking around the Wellelsey campus, it's clear that it was built with intentional incorporation of the surrounding nature. The architecture of many buildings were also mindfully crafted to support Wellesley's unique principles.
My first time in Chicago at the Society of Women Engineers Conference in Chicago, Illinois! Fully funded by Dartmouth, I had a great time meeting amazing companies and getting to know fellow women engineers.
From orientation week to your classes, you can easily find community at Dartmouth! Read on to know how I met my Dartmouth family and where you might also find yours.
