Michael Bierylo Named Chair of Berklee's Electronic Production and Design Department

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Berklee College of Music announces that Michael Bierylo has been named chair of the college's Electronic Production and Design Department (EPD). Bierylo, an electronic musician, guitarist, composer, and sound designer, has been a Berklee faculty member since 1995 and member of the band Birdsongs of the Mesozoic since 1991. In his new role at the college, he intends to embrace advances in video game design, software development, and all aspects of computer music and video performance.

"Music technology is a moving target, and while new trends tend to disregard what precede them, EPD looks to celebrate all avenues and vintages of electronic expression, " says Bierylo. "We look to both analog and digital systems, lo-fi and hi-fi. Our students design software for iPads and hack Speak and Spells. They create thumping dance tracks, interactive audio-visual installations, and inspired sonic landscapes for video games."

Bierylo's commercial work includes music and audio production for Hasbro Interactive, the Smithsonian, Nickelodeon, and the Oxygen Network, as well as music and sound design for the Incredible Hulk Roller Coaster at Universal's Islands Of Adventure. As a composer, Bierylo's work has been featured on A&E's Biography, the Learning Channel, and Martha Stewart Living. Recent projects include work on the films Granito, the Reckoning, and Traces of the Trade, all featured at the Sundance Film Festival.

Bierylo holds a B.M. from Berklee College of Music and has completed additional studies in jazz composition and audio engineering. A Berklee faculty member for over 17 years, he received the Music Technology Division Excellence in Teaching Award in 2003, and was the 2009 recipient of a Newbury Comics Faculty Fellowship that funded two trips to Berlin to study laptop performance, modular synthesizers, and new music software.

As a member of Birdsongs of the Mesozoic, Bierylo has performed throughout the U.S. at venues as diverse as the Knitting Factory, Honolulu Academy of Arts, Duke and Emory universities, and Dartmouth College. Bierylo's compositions are featured on the group's albums Dancing On A'A, Petrophonics, the Iridium Controversy, and Extreme Spirituals, all on Cuneiform Records. As a solo artist, Bierylo has performed in the U.S. and Berlin, Germany, including a concert with Grammy-nominated electronic musician BT in 2012.

Electronic Production and Design (formerly Music Synthesis) teaches the musical and creative use of electronic production and sound design tools and technologies. Working in professional-level 5.1-equipped studios, classrooms, and labs, students learn electronic composition, synthesizer programming, interactive performance systems, digital signal processing, music with integrated visuals, alternate controllers, and more. The curriculum provides a solid foundation for continued learning and effective performance in a profession that is constantly changing and evolving.

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