Student Music
Parklands College Studios
Parklands College Studios houses both our Film and Sound Engineering studios. The vision for our studios are to give young talent the chance to experience the music and film industries from the creation of an original work to its release on a public platform. For this reason our studios have become a great space for authentic learning to take place. This space is a hive of activity because our learners love multimedia and they use the facilities for almost every project and subject. This facility has also given the College’s sound engineering learners, musicians and filmmakers the opportunity to express themselves in a professional environment for a real audience.
The purpose of the studios is three fold. Firstly to provide our learners with an environment where they can explore and discover sound, film and new media. Secondly to teach them new skills that can be incorporated into any subject and thirdly to extend our offerings in an effort to help our learners identify their passions whilst still at school.
Equipped with the latest technology, the studios offer opportunities for learners to learn media recording and production skills as part of the Sound Engineering, Film and Animation courses on offer. These courses are held during the academic day and are part of our experiential learning programme, where learners use industry standard equipment and software to develop real world and entrepreneurial skills. This facility has given our music learners the chance to experience working in all aspects of a professional studio environment and our sound engineer’s experience in mastering and mixing music for the global market using Apple’s iTunes music platform.
Our sound studios released a digital album called “Origin” on iTunes in 2014 as well as the follow up album “Origin Vol. 2”.
Our film studios have released two music videos on the Parklands College Studios YouTube channel.
In February 2014, Parklands College Studios released its first Digital Album on iTunes called “ORIGIN Vol. 1”. Origin is a collection of songs recorded and produced by Parklands College learners utilising PARKLANDS COLLEGE STUDIOS (“PCS”). This is a ground-breaking film and sound recording studio at the College.
in 2017, Parklands College Studios and the Sound Engineering and Music Departments released their follow up Album, “Origin Vol. II”. This album consists of nine original tracks and is a celebration of the creative musicians, songwriters and sound engineers we have at the College.
In August 2020, Parklands College Studios released it’s third digital album, “A Mandela Day Music Celebration 2020”, on International Mandela Day. All proceeds from this album will be donated to the Nelson Mandela Foundation. This foundation inspires individuals to take action to help change the world for the better, and in doing so, to build a global movement for good. Please support this initiative by purchasing this album.
The tracks on the album are all recorded by the Parklands College Jazz Band. The band was founded in 2014 under the direction of Mr Dean Flanagan. Over the past few years the group have had the opportunity to record annually in Parklands College Studios. This album features a compilation of South African songs recorded and produced by a combination of our Sound Engineering learners, past Sound Engineering trainers and more recently by Mr Damian Philander. iXesha was recorded in collaboration with Settlers High School, under the musical direction of Mrs Tracey Johannes.
The Parklands College Jazz band has, since its inception in 2015, recorded yearly in the Parklands College Recording Studios. Designed with state of the art recording equipment the recording studio gives learners the opportunity to engage in real world recording scenarios, while learning from professional in-house sound engineers. Likewise, musicians at Parklands College are given the opportunity to record as soloists and in groups in a professional recording and film studio.
This ‘Best of 2015 – 2020’ album represents a selection of tracks recorded by the Jazz Band over its six year history. Combined, the album accounts for a collective effort of 33 learners, 4 sound engineers, 6 music educators and dozens of learners enrolled in our annual Sound Engineering learnership programme.
During a time when the Music and Arts industries have faced challenges on all sides, we are glad to be able to release an album that celebrates the musical achievements of our youth.
