International Week 2019: Vive Les Différences!
In the International Week, students, alumni and teachers of PXL-Music can broaden their minds with masterclasses, lectures, screenings and talks by inspiring people from the international music industry. The theme of this year’s edition is ‘Vive Les Différences’: differences in opinions, technologies, cultures and politics are used as raw material for creativity. Among others, there was an introduction in the world of flamenco, the current situation in the research on immersive audio, international songwriting, a session dealing with european copyright and a whole series of inspiring speakers.
Flamenco
On the first day, Michel Gillain and Antonio Paz introduced the students in the world of flamenco and collborated with the students on a song.
Immersive Audio
PXL-Music is pioneering in the research on immersive audio in the music industry. The Internationale Week turned out to be the perfect moment to submerge students, teachers and the music industry in the world of immersive audio. The Belgian representatives of the Audio Engineer Society were invited to exchange ideas between the academic and the professional world. With the support of d&b audiotechnik and Amptec, the students PA of PXL-Music installed an impressive setup of more than 25 speakers by which the audience could experience first hand what immersive audio feels like.
Serge Gräfe, FOH-mixer of Kraftwerk, allowed the public a peek into the 3D audio setup of the band, Steven Maes (PXL-Music Research), Jonas Reijniers (UAntwerpen) and Thierry De Vries shared their research experiences in the domain.
International Songwriting
The students of the International Songwriting project collaborated for a week on songs, inspired by masterclasses of Marie Daulne (Zap Mama) and Johannes Verschaeve (The Van Jets). At the end of the week they received feedback on the songs by professionals from the music industry.
European Copyright
The European copyright regulations are about to change. What will be the impact on the music industry? Rolf Falter (Communication European Parliament) explained the function of the European Parliament, Luc Gulinck and Ioan Kaes of the Belgian rights organisation PlayRight actively negotiated with members of the European Parliament and shared their experiences.
Inspirerende sprekers
Thanh Mai shared her experiences as a student in an international exchange programme and focused on the five biggest mistakes you can make as a foreigner in the US. Lander Lenaerts unveiled how he made a compilation album of the mythical jazz sax player Jack Sels. Alumnus Laurens Decock shared the insights he acquired on his internship at the American Canvasback Music. James Birchall told about running his FUSE ART SPACE in the English multicultural town of Bradford.
The studenten had inspiring conversations with Bart Govaert (Vlaams Cultuurhuis de Brakke Grond) and Dan Phelps (MODULAR). Tom Ruette (Kunstenpunt) gave an interesting perspective on the international activity of Belgian musicians and Janne Tauriainen (Tampere University) gave an introduction in the Finnish metal scene.
Students management looked at the future with Mark Bounds (TIR Music), got marketing tips from Music Ally and an insight in the German music industry by Frank Kuehl.
