MMXX RAVEL VIRTUAL STUDIOS - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Co - Founder
• Technical Director

Edmond once needed an orchestral soundtrack for a small video game he wrote. Luckily for him, his friend Ron is a composer. An excellent soundtrack was written, but there was no easy way to obtain a high quality performance. Being a technical sort of person, Edmond helped Ron develop the time-saving tools that are now in use by Ravel Virtual Studios. Edmond is a graduate of Stanford University, with a degree in computer science.

Gary Smart is an American composer of diverse musical talents and interests, and Ravel Virtual Studios is proud to have worked with Dr. Smart on two of his pieces, Wabi Sabi and Bye-bye. We're also pleased to be able to offer both here in their entirety for your enjoyment. In the composer's own words: Gary Smart's career has encompassed a wide range of activities as composer, classical and jazz pianist, and teacher. Always a musician with varied interests, he may be the only pianist to have studied with Yale scholar/keyboardist Ralph Kirkpatrick, the great Cuban virtuoso Jorge Bolet, and the master jazz pianist Oscar Peterson. A true American pluralist, Dr. Smart composes and improvises a music that reflects an abiding interest in Americana, jazz, and world musics, as well as the Western classical tradition. Dr. Smart's work has been supported by the Guggenheim Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Music Educator's National Conference, the Music Teacher's National Association and the National Endowment for the Arts. Dr. Smart's music has been performed in major venues in the US, including the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall, as well as venues in Europe and Asia. His Concordia for orchestra won the Concordia jazz composition award and was premiered at Lincoln Center, New York. Dr. Smart's compositions are published by Margun Music (G. Schirmer) and his work has been recorded on the Mastersound, Capstone and Albany labels. His CD s The Major's Letter, which features his songs for voice and piano, American Beauty - a ragtime bouquet; Hot Sonatas, a collection of jazz-influenced chamber music; and Turtle Dreams of Flight, original music for solo piano performed by the composer, have all been released recently by Albany Records. His Song of the Holy Ground for string quartet and piano won the 2008 John Donald Robb Musical Trust Composers' Competition and was premiered at the 2009 Robb Composers' Symposium at the University of New Mexico. Dr. Smart has spent two residencies in Japan, teaching in programs at Osaka University and Kobe College. He has also taught in Indonesia as "Distinguished Lecturer in Jazz" under the auspices of the Fulbright program. From 1999-2003, he served as Chairman of the UNF Music Department. Gary Smart is currently a Presidential Professor of Music at the University of North Florida.

Job Titles:

• Co - Founder
• Music Director

Ron is the Music Director of Ravel Virtual Studios, which he co-founded in 2006 to provide composers with a means of hearing their work performed with the vibrant sound of a live orchestra, but without the daunting costs of hiring musicians. As a composer himself, Ron recognized the frustration of the alternatives, which leave many composers unable to hear their work. He conceived Ravel Virtual Studios as a means of closing the gap between synthetic and live performances. Ron doesn't wish to persuade composers to avoid live musicians or to choose Ravel Virtual Studios over them. The chance to work with live performers is an extremely rewarding, irreplaceable experience. He encourages those with access to live musicians to take advantage of that wonderful opportunity. For the many composers who do not have this opportunity, however, he sincerely hopes that Ravel Virtual Studios might help to allay some of the frustration. Ron graduated summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania with degrees in both music and psychology, and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Ron studied composition and theory under Benjamin Boyle, Jay Reise, Kevin Kelly and Jim Primosch. He conducted research in the neurology of music perception with Eugene Narmour and Paul Rozin. While at Penn, Ron also co-founded and co-chaired the Undergraduate Composers Club. Ron studied MIDI sequencing and electronic music production and mastering with Terence Pender of Columbia University.