Reintroducing Stuyvesant’s Music Lab!

Although there are numerous music and production enthusiasts at Stuyvesant, these musicians, songwriters, podcast creators, singers, and filmmakers haven’t had a professional home to hone their talents and skills at school. However, that changes this year with the introduction of the newly renovated music lab, which introduces new, professional equipment. Harold Stephan, one of Stuyvesant’s experienced music teachers, created the lab for students to chase their dreams of music and production. Though the music lab already existed and was previously used for small groups of students, with the lab’s renovation, Stephan hopes to give more opportunities for students in the future.

Stephan initially had the idea to create the music lab in 2016 when he found storage rooms on the first floor filled with old computers and mixing boards. “I did a walkthrough in this space around [the] time I was working more with the choir. [...] I realized that there were all these rooms that had equipment sitting unused from a prior teacher,” Stephan stated. When they had been used, Stephan noticed that the rooms weren’t being used to their full potential; after the previous music teacher’s retirement, the computers had remained mostly untouched. “We were using it for some small [choir] rehearsals,” he continued. 

Due to the amount of debris in the room, Stephan spent two years working to clear out the area in his free time. The second phase was to establish a vision for the space. Noticing that there were many individual rooms within the space, Stephan wanted to transform it into a recording studio. “It was already set up nicely as production suites, like isolation rooms where students can work and do group projects, and all these rooms were already delineated and pilled out structurally,” he said.

Even before the renovations to the lab were finished, it was a useful space for a select group of students. Towards the end of the 2023-2024 school year, Gaven Nowak (‘24) was one of the few students who had been given special access to use the music lab through the All-City High School Modern Music Project, a program created by Stephan, in which professional musicians teach students guitar and keyboard, vocal recording, and mixing, while also answering questions and giving feedback on students’ productions. 

While being introduced to many professional musicians, Nowak and other students had the opportunity to use the music lab and its equipment to produce his own songs. “While we hadn’t actually recorded anything for the [extended play song] at the music lab, we used Stephan’s drum kit, piano, and amps to workshop [one of the professional musicians’] songs in the lab,” Nowak explained.

Before the complete renovation of the music lab, Stephan had worked hard to make sure his students thrived with available resources. “Everything that a musician needed was in the music lab and supplied by Stephan and his team, including instruments, amps, cables, microphones, computers, and much more,” Nowak said. “All the equipment was in excellent working condition and there was more than enough to go around.”

Nowak said that the music lab provided a creative outlet for extensive music production with unique equipment. “It was very beneficial to us to be able to use the music lab to rehearse after school because the other music rooms at [Stuyvesant] were almost always in use for extracurriculars,” he said. “None of us had a place where we could all come and play with a full drum kit, piano, amps, etc, without having to pay money for a rehearsal space.” However, with access to the music lab, Nowak and his friends didn’t encounter the financial barriers that may have hindered their ability to produce music. 

With the music lab, Nowak was able to chase his passion of formally creating music. “Not long after, we started the band Collidescope, and we now play shows all over New York,” he said. Nowak’s band was not the only student group that benefited from Stuyvesant’s music lab. Other songs produced by students in the Modern Music Project Program included “I Can’t Wait For Christmas” by Julia Miranda and Angel Soto, produced by Stephan and Ian Su; “Love Sick” by Clark Beach and Matthew Jost; and “Sharpie” by Luke Naphat. 

            Even with the new renovation to the music lab, there are still limitations, as it is important to take precautions when using equipment shared with numerous other students. “If I remember correctly, there’s only around seven to eight rooms available,” Nowak said. “I would recommend that the room be only used by students that are serious about creating music and video, because if everyone starts using it for regular school work or just to take a break and relax in, people who really need the advanced level of equipment won’t get the chance to use it.”

The new music lab has been renovated mainly to resolve small problems. Now, the recording room is also equipped with an audio interface. “[It] does a really nice job of emulating a bunch of traditional recording studio gear,” Stephan explained. Additionally, each room has an iMac with several different editing softwares downloaded and high end speakers. A professional team was hired to make sure the speakers best displayed the sound to match the size and dimensions of the room. “They came in and they brought a special microphone and special software where you send soundwave signals into the rooms,” Stephan said. “It corrected [the speakers] for the room so that when you listen to these speakers in the room, they sound pretty flat. So you can actually mix a record in any of these rooms and it should be pretty accurate and sound good.”

       One of the biggest challenges in developing the space was the acoustics. The rooms were naturally built such that sound would echo off the walls. To improve the sound quality, every room now has an acoustic structure hanging from the ceiling designed to absorb sound. The walls are also outfitted with fiberglass panels made from fabric. 

Aware of its previous impact on students, Stephan is open to opening the music lab for other forms of production besides songs. “There could be podcasting, for example. I have over here a DJ deck. This is a club style DJ system, so I can teach students how to DJ,” he said. Storytelling with Emerging Technologies, a new course at Stuyvesant, will also be taught in the music lab by Stephan. Given the demand for these types of classes, he would be willing to teach more in the future. 

At Stuyvesant, where music and creative production are already staples in many students’ lives, professional resources will aid students in honing their artistic passions. The advancement of the music lab is a crucial resource that was added this year due to the hard work and support of teachers and professionals. There isn’t a concrete schedule of when the music lab will be open yet, and specific time availability is not confirmed, but students can start reaching out to Stephan now to figure out a working time to use the lab. Whether it’s for group projects, solo songs, podcasts, or voiceovers, students are encouraged to showcase their love for the arts through the music lab.