Park University has partnered with BRC Audio Productions for an audio engineering degree program. This program, offered through the International Center for Music, aims to give students the opportunity to learn more about the world of professional live-sound audio engineering.

Roger Kugler, D.M.A., director of the ICM, said this new degree program will give students the ability to learn technical skills that they can use to apply to the production of audio recordings through films, broadcasts, live productions and other mixed media productions. Students will also be taught to apply their technical knowledge to reinforce sound for live productions for public consumption.

“The audio engineering program addresses specific aspects of the technical side of producing recordings that’s one option; this other one is reinforcing sound for live music productions,” Kugler said.

This type of program is more typically offered as a two-year degree at a junior college, so this program offered as bachelor’s degree is unique.

No other school in the Kansas City area is offering a program like this. In fact, the closest competition is Middle Tennessee State University which is where the idea for an in-depth Audio Engineering program first began.

“This is modeled after that program,” said Kugler. “However, what we do that they don’t do in their program is we have additional kinds of courses required that the engineer needs in the real world. So this is a more expansive program in the curriculum.”

Park offers the audio engineering degree as a Bachelor of Music. This means students will need to complete a minimum of 120 semester hours with a cumulative GPA of 2.0 or higher.

Students enrolled in the audio engineering degree program will need to complete all of the normal curriculum and requirements for a Bachelors of Music. However, they are not required to be a musician to enter into this program.

“An individual does not have to be a musician to engage in the program, but they will learn certain musical skills and knowledge, both theoretical and applied, so they can interact with a musician,” said Kugler.

Though this is a Park degree, classes will be held off campus at the BRC Audio Production Studios located at 1933 N 10^thSt., Kansas City, Kan. Students will be required to provide their own transportation to the studios.

The BRC studios are owned and operated by Bill Crain and his son, William Crain.This is a state of the art, full service and active studio where students will be given the opportunity to create, master and produce.

The BRC studios have already been used for educational purposes for 13 years, but the Crains decided to collaborate with Park University in order to give students with financial aid the opportunity to learn about the art of audio engineering.

There are multiple studios within BRC that are set up for teaching. Students will also be given the opportunity to work with recording artists.

“The people teaching this program, the owner and his son, they’re practicing with professional musicians, not just tech people, so they understand the music as well as the technical side,” said Kugler.

Students interested in any form of audio engineering are now given the opportunity to pursue this new program. More information on the program can be found at park.edu, search for audio engineering.