RED BULL ACADEMY – Entries close 3 June 2005!!
Anyone that’s interested in DJ’ing, music production or having wings, get on over to the RED BULL MUSIC ACADEMY website and enter for this years academy taking place in Seatle in the US…
Now in its eighth year, the Red Bull Music Academy continues its wholly unique approach to modern music education and appreciation, bu…
ilding a free-wielding, groundbreaking curriculum composed of – in the words of Public Enemy – food for the brain, beats for the feet.
At the Academy, information and inspiration are culled from any number of sources: the exchange of ideas, influences, and anecdotes; the spark and friction from hotly contested artistic debates; the communal exhilaration of a night up in da club, or the simple banging of rhythms on lunchroom tables.
For those that don’t know, the Red Bull Music Academy template goes a little something like this: two groups of thirty aspiring DJs, producers, and musicians from as many as thirty different nations and representing varied musical styles descends on a different location each year.
Their lecturers and mentors range from living legends and essential old school figures to some of the most talented young craftspeople making music today. Their labs are practice/recording studios equipped with turntable set-ups, mixers, samplers, keyboards and the latest music production software. Their duration of study: two two-week semesters. Their chance of experiencing something profoundly life-changing: based on the feedback of past participants, virtually assured.
After memorable stops in Berlin, Dublin, New York, London, Sao Paulo, Cape Town, and Rome, this year the Music Academy plants its stakes in the “Emerald City” of America’s Great Northwest -Seattle, Washington.
SEATTLE: An at once bustling and sophisticated yet charmingly intimate metropolis, the caffeine capital of the Western Hemisphere is in fact an exemplary locale for the Academy ’05. Seattle, of course, possesses a strong history of musical fertility (a splendid jazz tradition; the manic garage rock scene of the ’60s; the formation of the Sub Pop label and “grunge” movement in the ’90s), and boasts an impressive roll call of favourite sons and daughters; jazz and R&B icons Ray Charles, Quincy Jones and Ernestine Anderson, surf rock dudes the Ventures, Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, and Mr. “Square Dance Rap” himself Sir Mix-a-Lot have all called Sea-town home during their formative and/or most potent years. This community also clearly cherishes the value of artistic preservation, being the home of the Experience Music Project, a landmark museum featuring exhibits on every important pop music movement of the past five decades, from the inception of rock n’ roll through the underground disco years and birth of hip hop.
But perhaps what makes Seattle most compatible with the Red Bull Music Academy is its progressive nature and pioneering spirit. A century ago the town was an Old West hub for Gold Rush-driven miners and settlers. Today it fosters a collegiate atmosphere (due in no small part to the University of Washington) where cultures mix and mingle freely (more biracial babies born here annually than anywhere else in the U.S.). Factor in the surrounding environmental beauty of the Olympic Mountains, Cascade Range, and the waters of Lake Washington and it’s difficult to imagine a place more appropriate for stimulating one’s imagination and creativity.
Anyone interested in joining this year’s Academy in Seattle can initiate the process quite simply. Prospective applicants must send a completed questionnaire along with a mix-CD or selections of his/her own music, and a current photo to the Red Bull Music Academy between April 18th, and June 3rd, 2005.
Once the application period has ended, sixty of the most promising applicants will be invited to the workshops in Seattle. Flights and accommodations will be covered by the Red Bull Music Academy. If invited, participants should plan on being a part of either Term 1 (November 6th – November 18th, 2005) or Term 2 (November 27th – December 9th, 2005).
By July 29th, 2005, all applicants will be notified via email whether they have been invited or not. Those who have applied previously but have yet to be invited are nonetheless encouraged to dust themselves off and try again. As several past second- or third-time applicants have learned, perseverance can most definitely pay off.
Application forms, all the vital stats and info are available at www.redbullmusicacademy.com. There you can also find a plethora of photos, video streams, written accounts of past Academy experiences, and a complete list of the many immensely talented folks who’ve helped make this thing of ours something special over the years.
There it is. Now deliver the word.
Application Phase: April 18th – June 3rd, 2005.
Workshop Term 1: November 6th – November 18th, 2005
Workshop Term 2: November 27th – December 9th, 2005
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