School of Music to develop digital magazine

Adalia Garza | THE RIDER

The School of Music is developing a digital magazine to highlight the school’s projects and endeavors. The magazine, SOUND, is expected to be released at the start of the Fall 2021 semester.

According to the School of Music’s Instagram account, the magazine will showcase what the school has to offer.

The post reads, “SOUND will provide opportunities for our faculty, students, and staff to share and showcase their activities in teaching, research and creative works, and service to the Rio Grande Valley, the entire South Texas region, and beyond.”

The magazine began as a creative concept years ago and is now being developed by a team of contributors within the School of Music. 

Professor Mark Ramírez, associate director of the School of Music, said that the extra time that COVID provided enabled the magazine to come to fruition.

“I had been discussing this idea with Dr. Kurt Martinez, the director of the School of Music, for the last couple of years, just hadn’t had an opportunity to start to develop the concept,” Ramírez said. “ I started to find some extra time to contribute to these ideas. I was pretty passionate about the idea of having something that would be able to showcase what we’re doing in the School of Music.”

He said SOUND will evoke a sense of togetherness through the sharing of stories about the work of students, staff and the departments involved. 

“[To bring] every aspect of student success stories, faculty success stories and essentially crafting something that would help bring everyone together, not only internally, but also the community,” Ramírez said. “So that they can see what we are about and what we’re doing.” 

Jason Mitchell, advising coordinator for the School of Music, said alumni spotlights could be helpful to current and incoming students.

“I know that whenever I was a student, I didn’t know what people had done before me,” Mitchell said.  “I didn’t know any of that sort of history, which would have helped me as a student and as an alumni because it would have given me that idea of ‘Oh, hey, so and so is here. I can do that.’ I think that is extremely important, and I think that is something we are going to start looking at–doing alumni spotlights.” 

SOUND will be accessible through the School of Music’s website when it launches. Ramírez said the magazine will most likely be accessible through posted links to PDFs that people can download and read at their leisure.

For more information and updates, follow the School of Music’s Instagram page.