Our guest on Monday, December 20, 2015 The Chris Wolf Show was Tom Ulichny of the Midcoast Music Academy in Rockland, Maine. Tom discussed music in general, the Midcoast Music Academy, as well as showing us “live looping” and treating us to live performances of his songs.
Tom Ulichny
In 2005, Tom Ulichny graduated Magna Cum Laude from Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. As a multi-instrumentalist at Berklee, Tom studied guitar, drums, and world percussion, followed by a semester in Pune, India, studying Indian rhythmic systems and tabla, a traditional Indian hand drum. After graduating, Tom worked as an adjunct professor for the St. John School of the Arts in the U.S. Virgin Islands and was the Director of Music Education for Fell’s Point Music in Baltimore, MD, where he developed curriculum for an African drumming program at Living Classrooms Charter School. In the fifteen years that Tom that has been teaching private lessons and music seminars, he has worked with students of all ages and skill levels. Tom now makes his home in midcoast Maine, and is in full pursuit of a lifelong dream through the founding of the Midcoast Music Academy in Rockland.
Midcoast Music Academy (MCMA), www.midcoastmusicacademy.com, is a community music school founded in January 2012 and located in downtown Rockland, Maine that provides the highest quality music instruction to students of all ages and skill levels in a fun, relaxed, and creative environment. MCMA emphasizes access to music education regardless of financial constraints and combines the fundamentals of music – theory, notation, and ear training – with a contemporary approach to learning. At MCMA, they believe students should learn to play what they love and love what they play.
Tom’s passion for both percussion and stringed instruments led him to live looping, which allows him to record instantly while performing and build complex layers of melody, harmony, and rhythm. On October 1st, 2015, Ulichny released his debut album, “Lately,” recorded at Anchour Studios, which emphasizes a natural analog sound that closely mimics the live experience. Drawing from influences as diverse as old school slide and fingerpicking blues, Americana, traditional Hindustani and Carnatic music, experimental folk singer Andrew Bird and Afropop artist Oliver Mtukudzi, Ulichny’s music is equal parts warm soul and audio science.
The show was broadcast on WRFR Community Radio, Channel 7 Time Warner Maine Coast TV, and streamed live on www.mainecoast.tv/streaming, 8:00-9:00 a.m. EST.
The Chris Wolf Show is a joint project of PenBay Pilot, WRFR FM Community Radio and Maine Coast TV Community Television.
