Student Spotlight: Kymberly Kuras
How did you decide to come to Tufts and study music at Tufts?
I decided to come to Tufts because of the interdisciplinary approach to learning and the collaborative community I felt upon visiting Tufts. When I applied, I was intending to study Cognitive and Brain Sciences after really enjoying Science and Psychology in high school. I actually wrote my 'Why Tufts' essay about my love for jazz, equating its improvisatory and multitimbral spirit to the diverse opportunities offered at Tufts. Upon entering my first year, I took 20th-Century Music in Paris and Vienna with my now advisor, Professor Joe Auner, and became quickly interested in the possibility of studying music. I also became very involved with WMFO, Tufts Radio, and started to learn about music engineering and technology through working on a live-music show. Before the end of my freshman year, I had already declared my Music major and was intending to declare a double major in Psychology.
Tell us about your favorite music course so far.
I have loved every music class I've taken so far, so I don't know if I can pick just one. I would say my favorite seminar-style musicology course was Musical Lives with Professor Alessandra Campana. In this small discussion class, we explored topics such as the temporality of musical works, the autonomy of a composer over the life of their creations, the evolution of experimentation in music, and how soundscapes provide a footprint of culture, time period, society, technology, etc. What I loved about this class was the ability to apply concepts to my own unique interests, and that I could leave the course with a research paper exploring the musical life of my chosen focus.
My other, very different favorite course I've taken was Advanced Music Recording and Production. With my growing interest in music engineering, this course not only gave me important foundational knowledge and skills within audio production, but it also gave me the opportunity to create a recording project with my peers and realize the many different stages of the production process. This process gave me more confidence to lead independent projects and showed me the multitude of possibilities of creativity when it comes to recording music.
What are you involved in at the music department?
In addition to being a student, I also work on the Musical Technical Events Staff (METS) and am a TA for Introduction to Music Engineering with Professor Daniel Fox. I started on METS in Fall of 2023 and have been able to grow in my sound engineering skills and also experience a wide array of Tufts' Music Concerts that I may have not attended otherwise. It continues to impress me how many diverse concerts take place in Distler Concert Hall and I urge anyone to attend more Tufts concerts, even if you think it's not something you're interested in! You might be surprised. As a TA I help with course organization and class demonstrations. I have really enjoyed seeing how students from different disciplines offer unique insights as they learn about the fundamentals of music engineering.
What are you involved in outside of the music department?
This year I am the General Manager of WMFO and work as a live sound engineer at The Lizard Lounge in Cambridge. In addition to my leadership role at WMFO, I also usually host and engineer a live music show where local bands from Tufts, Berklee, and the greater Boston area perform. We're currently on hiatus this semester, but will be back next semester for more live music! Check out the show's instagram at 'postadolescenceglow.' I'm also involved in the German program and am in two student bands called Citric and Graperoots!
What are you listening to at the moment?
After studying Music abroad in Vienna, Austria, I was introduced by an experimental rock band called Bilderbuch and have been listening a lot to their album "Schick Schock." Their approach to production and experimental textures continues to impress me even after listening on repeat. Also, now that it's October, (and it's finally getting a little bit gloomy) I have started to pull out my "Oct" playlist full of Etta James, Ella Fitzgerald, and Marvin Gaye. To me, October is Vocal Jazz month and I've particularly been enjoying "The Complete Ella in Berlin: Mack The Knife (Live)" recordings.