Student Organized Private Concert at the Aeolian Hall

OIART organized a private concert run by students with lots of help from the instructors and Rogers TV at the Aeolian Hall. The concert crew was made up of three major crews; the film and documentary crew, the Rogers TV and recording crew and the live and stage crew. Each position in each crew was staffed by a student, positions that we all had to apply for based on what interested each of us the most. Personally, my top choice was to be the front of house mixer for the opening act, a position I couldn’t have been happier to get.


Our talent for the show consisted of a fantastic DJ from the program who played many student projects and two extremely talented local acts; Fraser Teeple opening for Van Ber, which the production class has been working closely with recently as a part of their final semester. Every crew had a major focus while every position had its own focus within that. Although we all had to work together and do lots of pre-production, the live crew was focused mainly on putting on the show within the venue, ensuring there were audio, video and lighting provided appropriately for each act. The film and documentary crew was in charge of documenting the event as well as conducting interviews with many of the instructors and students, myself included. The Rogers TV and recording crew was in charge of recording and mixing the show to television and Pro Tools. With every crew working together, we were able to pull off set-up and tear-down on time and hit every cue with only minor issues that we were all able to troubleshoot.

My job for the show was front of house mixing for Fraser Teeple, so I worked closely with Fraser himself, the lighting department and Fraser’s monitor mixer. We were able to set up a time the week previous to run a rehearsal where we got everything set up, learned new equipment, which for myself was the Midas M32 and M32R consoles, before having our talent play a few songs so we could dial in our pre-sets and save our sets before arriving at the Aeolian so that we could be fully prepared for the show. The students in charge of the main act went through a similar process, though their set up consisted of many more players and microphones. When we arrived at the show, these rehearsals made it so that we only had to change small parts of our previous set ups. When it got to the show, I believe we were all a bit nervous as much of the organization had gone to us to organize show files for lighting and audio, ensure we were trained in all of the necessary equipment for our position and hit all the cues, however, everything went over smoothly and we were all able to watch and enjoy the shows from our resident DJ Conor, Fraser Teeple, and Van Ber.

Every position held an important place in the show and was a great experience for every student as well as a fantastic show from the local talents. It was interesting, educational and fun to be able to be trained in new departments and learn new equipment and be able to see what other departments were doing during slower times for each position. We all enjoyed the show and with this being many of our first experiences putting on a concert, was an excellent chance to learn what putting on a live event would be like and all of the planning involved.