Music big part of student's life

Editor’s note: This is one in a series profiling local students each week.

Daymon Ryan, a senior theater student at Eastern New Mexico University, realized that he had a passion for sound design long before he decided to pursue it in college.

“I was in band since about fifth grade, so music has always just been a big part of just everything. My family has been a family of composers and stuff like that, so I guess I kind of just picked it up after a while,” he said. “I’ve been very interested in music, composing, sound design, since my junior year of high school, so that’s what I’m kind of here doing.”

Ryan

A native of Mansfield, Texas, Ryan composed an original soundtrack for ENMU’s 2015 production of “The Elephant Man” and also developed the play’s sound design.

What are your goals after you graduate college?

I’m kind of looking to go get a residency at a theater as their sound designer, kind of technical stuff like that; probably lighting as well. After that, I kind of want to get a master’s degree. I’m looking at some schools: University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music and the University of Ohio. For some reason, both of them are in Ohio. And then, possibly start teaching sound design at a college level.

What are your highest ambitions?

Well, I have a music project that I’ve been working on (HappyHappy), and it would be really cool for that to take off. I have two albums and an Extended Play (EP) out on iTunes and Spotify and stuff like that, so if that got a little more popular, I wouldn’t be too mad. Being able to do stuff with that, it’s always something I like to do.

What keeps you going in difficult times?

I have a lot of friends and roommates here that are really supportive. Everyone in the department’s really supportive of everyone in the department, so we all know when someone’s going through something. We’ll try to help each other out.

— Compiled by Staff Writer Eamon Scarbrough