Ohio Northern University’s New BA Music Concentration in Sound Recording Technology

Ohio Northern University’s new BA Music concentration in Sound Recording Technology (SRT) is focused on experiential learning and high impact student experiences, not only through campus opportunities, and its built-in study abroad component at the University of Salford but with a new collaboration between Northern’s Department of Music and Sweetwater, the world largest music retailer and leader in music technology. Dr. Henning Schroeder, Associate Professor of Music, discussed in-person with both Chuck Surak, the Founder and CEO of Sweetwater and Jeff McDonald, their Vice President of Human Resources, about potentials for ONU Music Students to advance their learning through Sweetwater resources. Currently students will be able to seek internship opportunities with the company as well as participate in many of the, almost daily, educational workshops at a discounted rate. And we are currently working to take advantage of the proximity to Fort Wayne, IN to bring some of these master clinicians to campus. Just as our students can learn from BBC studio recording masters at Salford, they will have similar opportunities to shadow and learn from the masters of the music industry through this collaboration with Sweetwater.

Additionally, Sweetwater is expected to gross over $1,000,000,000 in sales during the current fiscal year. As a company who leads the world in music instrument and technology retail, they have expressed interest in our students joining their team upon graduation from ONU. Specifically, Sweetwater wishes to recruit the independent and critical thinker with a tolerance for our Midwest. Not only will Sweetwater need to acquire talent who understand the components of hardware and software for sound recording and audio technology, but they are interested in our graduates in Business, Marketing, Art and Design, Communications, and Engineering. We’re very excited about this new collaboration and the potential for high-impact learning and career opportunities for our students.