Teaching

David Pickett with Beatles producer George Martin
and students at the University of Surrey

Dr. David Pickett has taught widely in the areas of Music (history, appreciation and performance), Recording Arts, Audio Technology, and Electronics.

Recording Arts, Audio Technology &Electronics

The Art Institute Houston, Texas (2009–

Chair of Audio Production

University of North Texas, College of Music, Denton, Texas, USA (2006–2008)

Classes Taught

    • Topics in Audio Recording
    • Introduction to Audio

Indiana University School of Music, Bloomington, Indiana, USA (1983–1999)

“The most portentous appointment of 1983 (signalling as it did a new level of attentiveness to electronic technology in the School) was that of David Pickett, who was the School’s first professorial-level appointee in recording arts; by 1990 he had developed a degree program in Audio Recording.”
— George M. Logan: The Indiana University School of Music: a History
    (Indiana University Press, 2000, p. 273)

Classes Taught

    • Recording Arts — Repertoire
    • Recording Arts — Practicum
    • Topics in Audio Recording
    • Audio Technology II
    • Audio Technology III
    • Basic Electricity
    • Electronics I
    • Electronics II

Among Dr. Pickett’s former students at Indiana University are:

    • Jonathan Bach, Producer and Game Designer, Electronic Arts, CA
    • Audrey Bentham, Primary audio engineer for Fresh Air at WHYY, Philadelphia
    • Cornelius Boots, Musician, composer, teacher and audio producer, Oakland, CA
    • Brian Bowman, Recording Engineer, US Navy Band, Washington, DC
    • Andrew Dawson, Sound Supervisor, Universal Creative Services, CA
    • Leslie Gaston, Assistant Professor of Music, University of Colorado, Denver, CO
    • Dan Gellert, Studio Express, Beverly Hills, CA
    • Larry Goodman, Senior Account Manager, Xytech Systems, Burbank, CA
    • Travis Gregg, Coordinator of Audio Production, Indiana University School of Music
    • Jeff Mee, Freelance Recording Engineer, formerly with Delos Records,
       Los Angeles, CA
    • Jennifer Munson, WNYC, NY, NY
    • John Nuner, Associate Faculty, Audio Technology, Indiana University, South Bend
    • Joseph M. Palmaccio, Mastering Engineer, “The Place...For Mastering”,
       Nashville, TN
    • Mark Plati, Producer, Engineer and Musician based in New York City
    • Kevin Shima, Recording Engineer and Producer, Musician and Teacher, OH
    • Sherene Strausberg, Composer, Musician, Engineer, Designer, Los Angeles, CA
    • Konrad Strauss, Recording Engineer, Director of Recording Arts and
       Professor of Music, Indiana University School of Music
    • Michael Stucker, Lecturer in Recording Arts, Indiana University School of Music
    • Li Teo, Consultant/Recording Engineer, Independent Classical Productions,
       Singapore
    • Andres Villalta, Recording Engineer, Philadelphia, PA
    • Shane D. Wilson, Recording Engineer, TN

University of Surrey Department of Music, Guildford, England (1979–1983)

With Sir. Georg Solti, President of the Association of Professional
Recording Studios, inspecting student projects entered for the
APRS Jacques Levy Memorial Award

Classes Taught

    • Recording Techniques I
    • Recording Techniques II
    • Recording Techniques III
    • Recording Arts &Sciences Seminar
    • Technical Listening

Dr. David Pickett’s former students at the University of Surrey include:
    • Andrew Beer, Recording Engineer, EMI
    • Ben Fenner, Recording Engineer
    • Daniel Fournier, Music Architect, Engineer and Teacher, formerly at QCM
       (Queensland Conservatorium of Music), Australia
    • John Fredericks, Managing Director, Technical Earth
    • Erdo Groot, Grammy-nominated Recording Engineer,
        Director of Polyhymnia International, Netherlands
    • Mike Hatch, Recording Engineer and co-founder of Floating Earth
    • Francis Rumsey, Professor of Sound Recording, University of Surrey

Music History, Musicology and Music Appreciation

University of North Texas, College of Music, Denton, Texas, USA (2006– 2008)

    • Seminar class in Mahler research

Napier University, Edinburgh, Scotland (1999–2000)

    • Seminar in Music Research (final year projects)

Indiana University School of Music, Bloomington, Indiana (1983–1999)

    • Recording Arts Repertoire

Occasional Lectures

Dr. David Pickett has given preconcert lectures with his own orchestras and also for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, and at Indiana University. A selection of titles is given below.

Beethoven

    • Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas
    • Beethoven and the String Quartet
    • Beethoven, Prometheus and Napoléon
    • Beethoven’s Pastorale Symphony

Other Composers

    • Chopin's Successors — Moniuszko to Kilar
    • Andrzej Panufnik — Life and Works
    • The Angelic Music of Einojuhani Rautavaara
    • Music of 20th-century Poland — Szymanowski, Bacewicz, Penderecki et al.
    • The Music of Finland after Sibelius

Famous Conductors

Walter, Toscanini, Kleiber, Klemperer & Furtwängler in Berlin, 1929 or 1930

Each lecture presents an illustrated musical and biographical profile of one of the great conductors of the twentieth-century:

    • Wilhelm Furtwängler
    • Otto Klemperer
    • Igor Markevitch
    • Arturo Toscanini
    • Bruno Walter

Lecture-performances

Dr. Pickett builds a concert around a single masterwork, preceding the performance by an illustrated lecture in which the orchestra also participates. Supporting material is provided by handouts (with facsimiles), display photographs and Power Point presentations.

  • Bach: A Musical Offering
  • Beethoven: Symphony No. 4 in B flat
  • Brahms: Variations on a Theme of Haydn
  • Haydn: Symphony No. 104 in D
  • Mozart: Symphony No. 40 in G minor

Music Performance

School for Strings, Port Huron, Michigan, USA (2001–2005)

  • Individual instruction in beginning Double Bass
  • Summer workshop — Double Bass for high school students
  • Summer workshop — Chamber Music Coaching

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