Timothy Polashek MA '96

Dartmouth's masters program in music allowed me to develop my interdisciplinary interests in composition, computer science, and music theory--  The course work was extremely rigorous and interesting, but the most important aspect of the program was its culture of intellectual confidence, creativity and innovation shared among professors and students (who were more like research peers than professors) and the many wonderful guest speakers that came to visit and collaborate with us at Bregman from all over the world. Highlights for me were composing, interacting with pioneers in electronic music on and off campus, performing experiments in music cognition and acoustics, and driving, biking, and hiking all over the white mountains and canoeing and swimming in the Connecticut River. 

This interdisciplinary curiosity continues with me today.  I am constantly developing new software to use in the compositing of my music and other research projects.  In my teaching, I often offer interdisciplinary courses such as Music Cognition, Collaborative Fine Arts Workshop, Interactive music and Multimedia, and Art and Acoustic Ecology in addition to music technology courses.  I've also directed several international digital art and music festivals, working closely with visual artists and curators.