August 27, 2024

At Bennington, students spend six weeks every year taking their skills and knowledge out of the classroom and applying them in the world of work. They use this annual work-learning opportunity—known as Field Work Term—to deepen their studies, challenge and test new ideas, and hone their direction for the future.

How did your FWT relate to (or diverge from!) your studies at Bennington?

Although my studies in music relate mostly to performance and composition, doing a lot of raw logistical work for the Ashé Records label was an invaluable experience. I learned a great deal about what makes everything tick in the world of record production and distribution.

What did a typical day at your FWT site look like? 

As soon as I got to my FWT site on any given day, I would start in on whatever distribution work I was assigned, including tasks such as packing CDs, making post office runs, writing product descriptions for the Ashé Records website, and entering ISRC codes, BPMs, and composer, performer, and producer credits, as well as mood descriptions for each individual track on certain albums. Occasionally, I also received conga lessons from my supervisor's partner, who is a master conguero and dizzyingly prolific session percussionist.

What surprised or challenged you the most about your position?

The rigor of the record distribution process, while not a surprise, certainly affected my pace of work. Making sure I was entering all the right track information while also, in the case of soon-to-be-rereleased songs, checking the songs' digital distribution history as it pertained to mastering rights, for instance, definitely set me back a bit.

What do you hope to do in the future—for your next FWT and beyond Bennington?

For my next Field Work Term, I would love to do anything relating to music performance, composition, education, or ensemble management. I would also welcome an opportunity to work with other record companies, recording studios, or museums of now-defunct labels or studios. For instance, I'm planning to reach out to the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio museum in Alabama to see if they have any archival internships.

As to my time beyond Bennington, I hope to attend a conservatory or music school, with the goal of eventually playing—I play flute, drumset, some percussion, and a bit of bass guitar and trombone—and composing professionally full-time, but the harsh reality of today's music industry is that supporting oneself exclusively through gigging and recording is really difficult. A lot of the money in music right now is in education, so I might look into getting a music ed degree at some point.