Local grad making (sound) waves

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This article was published 27/9/2019 (315 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Lately, things have been coming full circle for Kierian Turner.

When Turner was preparing to graduate from Miles Macdonell Collegiate in 2015, he wasn’t sure which interest to pursue at the post-secondary level: music, or business. 

But after visiting the University of Lethbridge’s digital audio arts studios, Turner chose music.

"After seeing Studio One here I fell in love, it’s such a beautiful space," Turner said on the phone from Alberta. "I figured I would be happier in the music industry, rather than in general business."

Now, as a result of the opportunities the immersive program at the University of Lethbridge offered Turner, he has found that his path forward likely involves a marriage of music and business.

"I’m trying to keep my options open," Turner said as he prepared to travel to Toronto to take part in a week long mentorship program. 

Turner is one of six Canadian students to win a prestigious Musicounts Scholarship through the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. The experience in Toronto will allow Turner and his five colleagues to meet a wide variety of industry players over the course of five days.

"I’m super excited," Turner said. "There are tons of aspects of the industry I don’t know anything about, so I’d like to learn about it. If something interests me that I know nothing about, I want to pursue that to keep that avenue open."

Following his week in Toronto, Turner will be headed to New York to take part in the Audio Engineering Society’s International Pro Audio Convention, where he will present research he has done or been involved with as both a student and research assistant at the University of Lethbridge. Part of his own research involved "binaural beats" he and his research partner have been experimenting with in the studio.

"We’re trying to immerse people in the music more," he explained.

As a recording engineer, Turner has worked with Alberta based hip-hop artist Sykologist. And while he doesn’t plan to abandon his studio training, at this point, Turner feels drawn to the management side of the music industry. 

"With artist and tour management, I imagine those production and engineering skills will come into play quite a bit in the future," Turner said. "Artist teams are getting smaller and smaller, I want to make sure I offer as many skills as I can so if something falls through, I’ll have more than one backup."

He’s currently working with Ontario-based singer-songwriter Craig Cardiff, doing tour planning and marketing.

"It’s been an eye-opening experience," Turner said. 

The fact that he has made it this far at all isn’t lost on Turner, who admits he almost dropped out of the digital audio arts program at Miles Mac after only a week back in Grade 10.

"I didn’t think it was what I was looking for," Turner recalled with a laugh. "But my parents convinced me to go talk to (instructor) Zane Zalis. So I sat down with him, and he convinced me to stay in the course for another week, play it out and see how it goes. So I did. And I fell in love with the course."