Duquesne University’s music students worked remotely to provide the original score and voiceover for a commercial promoting the school. 

The Marketing and Communications division at Duquesne University decided to tap into the Mary Pappert School of Music for the musical side of production for an upcoming ad that will be created for the fall, the university's website reported.

Joshua Bryan-Branker, a sophomore music education major from Baltimore, Maryland, was able to help even though he was not physically present for the production process. 

"I had no prior voiceover background and it was exciting to get to work on this project," Bryan-Branker told the university. "I got to learn more about microphones and recording equipment, as well as how to be more expressive vocally. As a musician, these concepts are some that I'll carry with me throughout my career. I am thankful to be able to use my voice to help promote Duquesne."

Colby Hill, a sophomore media composition student from New Castle, Pennsylvania, composed and recorded original music for the commercial spot in his home studio in just a few hours.  

Producing the music and voiceover for the new commercial remotely was possible because Thomas Kikta, the chair of the Commercial Music, Media and Jazz Department, has already been using a new system for conducting his classes in a remote capacity. The Digigram/IQOYA *SERV/LINK, a multi-channel system that produces much higher audio quality than other conferencing tools like Zoom, the website said. 

The Mary Pappert School of Music is the first school in the world to be using this sort of technology to accomplish distance education.

The production of the new image commercial could also be helped by this technology, especially when paired with the Institute of Entertainment, Music and Media Arts (IEMMA) that the School of Music and Kikta helped to launch last year. 

"I saw this as a great opportunity for IEMMA to bring together parties that normally wouldn't interact in this way professionally," Kikta said, the website reported. "This is the IEMMA vision in practice where students can benefit and learn from real world experience."  

The university’s new image campaign was released on Aug. 17 and was able to benefit from the robust remote capabilities of the program and the hard work of students and department heads alike.