Brian K. Shepard: Biography

In 7th grade, that snare drum was almost as big as me! (I got bigger)

r. Brian K. Shepard is a musician and composer whose professional career includes nearly 30 years as an orchestral percussionist including 12 years as Principal Percussion with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic Orchestra. He has also played frequently in recording sessions and for various shows, including Lyric Theatre—Oklahoma City's professional music theater company. As a composer of both acoustic and electronic art music as well as an arranger and orchestrator of symphonic "Pops" charts, his works have been performed by the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, the Charleston (SC) Symphony Orchestra, the Winston-Salem Symphony, the Portland (ME) Symphony Orchestra, Trio Contraste, the Margarita Baños-Milton dance ensemble, and by numerous faculty and student ensembles from colleges and universities across the country. As a result of collaborations with dancers, he began exploring the concept of interactive dance music in the late 1990s. One of his forays into this area, HyperLinx (pdf), uses infrared sensors placed around a stage to detect a dancer's movements. This information is then used by a computer running a program written by Dr. Shepard in MaxMSP to create a musical accompaniment to the dance. In addition to writing the computer program, he also built much of the hardware used in the work.

Dr. Shepard is also a professor and scholar and holds the position of Assistant Professor of Pedagogical Technology and Composition at the Flora L. Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California, where he teaches courses in composition, music theory, orchestration and music technology at both the undergraduate and graduate level. He also chairs the Thornton School Technology Committee. Before coming to USC, Brian was Assistant Professor of Composition and Music Technology at the University of Oklahoma School of Music for 13 years and before that was the Director of Bands for 5 years in the Music Department of Oklahoma Christian University.

OKC Philharmonic Percussion Section with Evelyn Glennie

Dame Evelyn Glennie with the OKC Philharmonic Percussion Section (Roger Owens, David Steffens, and me) after we performed Joseph Schwantner's Percussion Concerto

As a music technologist, Brian is committed to preparing music students for the technological demands of life as a 21st-century musician. He was one of the earliest proponents of high-bandwidth videoconferencing for musical purposes, and conducted the very first demonstration of a private music lesson over Internet2 with full-frequency, uncompressed audio and video in October 1999. Since that time, Dr. Shepard’s Internet2 activities, and his pioneering research into the musical possibilities of high-performance networks has brought him international recognition, and in April 2006, Internet2 recognized his work with their inaugural IDEA Award. His research has been published in the National Association of Schools of Music's Proceedings, and has been featured in a number of media outlets including CNN's Technology Week In Review and NPR's Morning Edition, as well as in The Christian Science Monitor, Discover, Symphony, EdTech, AV Technology magazines, and most recently, The Chronicle of Higher Education.

In October 2009, after nearly 10 years of research into issues of audio quality and echo control for musical videoconferencing, Shepard released his software ECHODamp to educational and performing arts institutions around the world. This breakthrough application allows participants to control echo in a videoconference without sacrificing audio quality, and musicians may now experience the sound of a full, uncompressed frequency spectrum, without echo, even after the audio has traveled thousands of miles. Recognizing the importance of quality echo control in the high-performance network environment, Internet2 honored Shepard for his work creating ECHODamp with a 2nd IDEA Award in April, 2010.

Brian serves on the Internet2 Performance Events Advisory Committee and is a former member of the music editorial review board for MERLOT (Multimedia and Educational Resources for Learning and Online Teaching). He is also an audio recording "coach" for the New World Symphony in Miami Beach Florida.

Phantom, Phillip, Cecei, Jenny, Abby, and me

Dr. Shepard earned his Bachelor's degree in Percussion Performance from the University of Kansas, his Master's in Conducting from the University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music (CCM), and his Doctorate in Music Composition from the University of Oklahoma.

Born into a U.S. Army family at Ft. Knox, Kentucky, Brian had a rather nomadic upbringing, living in Kentucky, Texas, Germany, Indiana, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, Florida, Louisiana, Virginia, Kansas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Oklahoma. He now resides in Woodland Hills, California with his wife Jenny, their children Phillip and Cecilia, and their two dogs Phantom and Abby.

Links

Video Interview

A couple of years ago I was interviewed by ArtistshouseMusic discussing my career in music and my research in music distance education. If you don't mind the fact that my hair was a wee bit longer then, click the Play All button below to begin playback.

Click PLAY ALL to begin video playback.