Day 10

Name: Andy Lee

Profession: Wireless software engineer

Location: The Fenway Center, Concert 1 of 4 of NU Music Tech’s Spring Concert Series

Question: What brought you here today?

Answer: Loyalty and curiosity

In a cathedral-turned-concert hall, Andy Lee was only one of four audience members to sit in the front section at the Northeastern Music Technology program’s first spring concert. Though one might have thought him to be an eager fan of the composers featured that evening, he was just there supporting his friend, the event’s organizer, and had walked in late. This misconception was doubly surprising when Lee revealed his profession.

“What it is, is if you look at how, if you have a cell phone, how the signals are transferred, it’s very similar as how the sounds are digitized today,” he said, referring to the electroacoustic music showcased that night. “At a very low level, it’s all signals. So when you make a cell phone call, it’s all based on signals as it’s going across the air. However, at the end of it, it’s all software-based, and there’s a portion of it that’s related to how the telephone companies charge for your service. Also, how they guarantee that your calls won’t get dropped. So it’s kind of related to that area.”

Considering the nature of the concert, which was very computerized in nature, Lee’s attendance seemed too relevant to be only courteous. However, he assured me, he’s not “musically gifted” and this was the first concert of its kind he had ever experienced. His mere involvement with technology, he added half-jokingly, was “a curse.”

Despite this, he seemed to enjoy himself.

“I thought it was interesting. I think.… I didn’t get a chance to read the program. I think the music could have been for me, personally, put in context if I read the program first because the descriptions really ties into the music. Um, I didn’t get that insight before listening to the music, so it was good, but it wasn’t as insightful as it could have been if I had read the stuff first,” he said. “It’s at a very technical level, so the sound waves and how the sounds were generated were very interesting.”

Lee hopes to attend the other three concerts of the series: "It's on my list."