New Piece! A Road Tripping Country Song

this rural highway road trip ends badly, but I hope you enjoy the piece just the same.

the piece was inspired by a friend recounting finding a pair of crosses along the highway bearing the names “Mitch” and “Hog.” Consider this song these characters’ final highway adventure.

the song features tambourine, drums, guitars, mandolin, and pedal steel guitar.

Listen, HERE.

Bells on College Green – a Sound Design Project

This is the second of my two final projects for “Sonic Measures,” a Sound Design course I took this spring with Professor Terry Adkins and Marc Blumthal.

The assignment was to take some video footage which was primarily visual in nature (and natural – not a performance) and to use sound design to enhance the raw footage. In Logic, to enhance the audio already present from the video (which was full of ringing church bells which inspired the sound design,) I used raw waveforms generated in Audacity and used time, pitch, and layering effects and reverberation to create a soundscape full of sounds that are evocative of bells or otherwise mimic bells’ characteristics.

The video footage was taken on College Green at Penn, and between 36th & 34th Streets // between Locust Walk and Walnut Street over the course of several afternoons at around the same time, thus having clock bells tolling in all of my footage.

the Wading Bird – a Sound Design project

This is one of my two final projects for “Sonic Measures,” a Sound Design course I took this spring with Professor Terry Adkins and Marc Blumthal.
The assignment was to take some video footage which was primarily visual in nature (and natural – not a performance) and to use sound design to enhance the raw footage. In Logic, to enhance the audio already present from the video (which was very distorted,) I used percussion, foley water sounds, and other effects and reverberation to create a soundscape to highlight this bird, stalking prey along the shoreline.

The video footage was taken on my Droid cellphone in Sarasota, Florida.

New Movie: PRE-MEDitation // Sound Editing and Film Scoring

“PRE-MEDitation”

*FEATURING*
Jon Lee Andrade …as… JON
Sarah Elizabeth Zerod …as… SARAH
Thalia Stanberry …as… PROFESSOR STANBERRY, PARTY-GOER #1
Tyler Altenhofen …as… PARTY-GOER #2, himself
Sarah Van Sciver …as… PARTY-GOER #3, herself
Chadwick Prichard …as… himself

*WITH*
STORY, SCRIPT, CAMERA WORK …by… Chadwick Prichard, Sarah Van Sciver, and Tyler Altenhofen
VIDEO EDITING and VISUAL EFFECTS …by… Chadwick Prichard and Tyler Altenhofen
SOUND EDITING and ORIGINAL MUSIC …by… Sarah Van Sciver

*SPECIAL THANKS TO*
Professor Ellen Reynolds,
the DV Lab and its staff,
the Rodin Cafe and its staff,
Final Cut Pro 7,
Logic Pro 9,
Finale 2012,
…and…
everyone at the Equipment Cage and Addams Fine Arts Building.

Hope you enjoy this final project for Penn’s Video 1 course.

New Project: Foley Fiction – a Soundtrack without a Film

This was my final assignment for my Electronic Composition Class at Penn with Professor Primosch. Almost all featured sounds are made from manipulated sine waves, chirps, or (mostly) recordings of me singing or speaking or making noise into a microphone. I recorded a crowd of students throwing frisbees as well as some ambient city sounds in the middle of the night, but those samples were used sparsely and every sound in this project is ‘foley.’

Here is a narration to guide you through this film soundtrack [without a film]:

Incognito at his daytime desk job at the office, an assassin receives an assignment via telephone. He clears his desk, packs his bag, quickly grabs his keys, and walks casually to the elevator around the corner from his cubicle. He takes the elevator down four flights, then its doors open onto a train station. Crossing a platform, pop music plays on the radio. The assassin walks through the station unnoticed to his parked motorcycle. Across the platform, the assassin boards and starts his motorcycle. He rides the motorcycle through a windy set of tunnels, until… he reaches a large crowded roadside restaurant. He parks his motorcycle, strolls along the sidewalk until he reaches a table in the middle of the street-side seating where – he fires a single shot, eliminating his target.  In the wake of his crime’s commission, the assassin skulks away unseen.

I created this project using Audacity and Logic Pro 7.

Enjoy: HERE IT IS.

Dischord Retrospective: Four Years of A Cappella at Penn

Graduating, soon, I have been thinking a lot about my time at Penn, specifically acting as an arranger, conductor, music director, soprano/mezzo, studio producer, and board member of Dischord A Cappella. Dischord is a co-ed group that was founded at the University of Pennsylvania back in 1998. The group performs a cappella covers spanning all genres – pop, indie, rock, country, jazz, folk, world, and fusion. Under my direction, the group has featured many mash-ups and medleys in its covers.

You can read a full account of my arranging credits for the group, here: Sarah Van Sciver, ’13, Soprano

Solo performances at our semesterly concerts:

I am an arranger for hire! Professional or non-professional vocal groups of all experience levels — all-male, all-female, or co-ed — contact me if you are interested in having something arranged.

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New Piano/Vocal Pop Arrangement: Regina Spektor’s “Blue Lips”

Cover features piano, lead soprano + backing trio (soprano, mezzo, alto)…

–> check out the cover:

 [I’m singing and playing all parts.]

…and of course check out the original Regina Spektor is AMAZING. Saw her in concert last year in Boston at the Orpheum, and she and her husband and both of their bands were fantastic live!

A Cappella Arrangements – Live Performances Spring 2013

my UPenn a cappella group, Dischord, just had a spring concert last weekend on 4/6. Here are links to songs I arranged or co-arranged with other members that were performed at the show:

Fade Into You

Feelin Good

Glitter in the Air

I Want it That Way/Boy band Mashup

I Won’t Give Up/Mraz Mredley

Locked Out of Heaven

Morning Song (<– I’m the soloist on this one)

Soldier

When Love Takes Over

find out more about Dischord HERE

NEW TRACKS! Inspired by/Commissioned for Stim Children’s Theatre’s Production of ROBIN HOOD

  1. Enter the Hero for trumpet, trombone, violin, viola, cello, contrabass, and percussion
  2. The Sheriff for harmonica, violin, viola, cello, contrabass, and percussion
  3. The Final Fight for piccolo, flute, harp, violin, viola, cello, contrabass, and two percussionists
  4. Through Brush and through Briar for flute, oboe, harp, and mandolin
  5. Chase for violin, viola, cello, and contrabass

come see the show! –> RSVP here

thanks for listening!

…Just Added Two More Tracks to my Music Page!

check these out:

I co-produced Baltimore Ave and was the only producer for Lights Out, and I can’t wait to be in the studio again this spring with Dischord!

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