We're looking on the bright side of this increasingly virtual world, and taking the opportunity to speak with more alumni in the classroom! Today, we're bringing you inside a visit from Alana Aksoy '14 and Henry Ott '11, two former students who joined Mr. Wilson's Digital Music class to bring the concepts learned in class to life!

Following her time at ASP, Alana studied Music Business at NYU's Clive Davis School, then founded her own business. She is also a Director of A&R at Disruptor Records under Sony Music, doing a mix of label, publishing, and music management work. During her visit, she explained to students the meaning of artists and repertoire (A&R) and gave our students her insights into how to pursue their passion for music without being a performer.

Sharing her experience on the business side of music, she focused on how she is developing a strong acumen for detecting talent. Alana also shared changes in the industry that she has observed, most notably the speed at which artists are recognized these days; going from a homemade Tik Tok clip to a recording contract in a week is not surprising. Alana shared that studying hard at ASP prepared her for university classes, "I did not find them difficult." ASP gave her a strong academic foundation and encouragement to pursue her passions.

Finally, she talked about how she had met some of her contacts, including Jay-Z, she stressed the importance of making connections and finding/creating opportunities to advance one's work and career. Her experience of meeting Jay-Z at an NYU classroom visit was most impactful for our students, as she shared the steps she followed to turn this visit into an extended apprenticeship and eventual salaried position at his Roc Nation production company

A few days later, Henry joined the class to continue the talks to help our students better understand how the multi-billion dollar music industry functions, and to share more about potential career paths for our students.

Henry is a Brooklyn-based guitarist, electronic music creator, and mastering engineer. She shared stories about the various artists he has worked with as part of Ms Velvet and the Blue Wolf, often touring with George Clinton's Funkadelic, meeting Blackbyrd McKnight, and other inspiring musicians.

Henry shared the challenges and frustrations of creating music and not being able to perform it in concert for a live audience, due to COVID restrictions. He also shared the impact of ASP on his personal life: he has a band with ASP alums that he maintains during 'normal' times. This group, Mammifères, is also Brooklyn-based and is now composed of four ASP alums. In June of 2011, they became the first rock band to use the ASP Recording Studio to lay down a track! The leader is singer/guitarist Luke Papenfusscline '11, with Henry Ott on guitar, Aiden Farrell '13 on drums and James Farrell '11 on bass.