Richmond faculty guided him to his accomplished sound design career

A drama professor sat beside Vincent Olivieri, ’98, a theater- and music-loving high schooler, at UR’s admitted students dinner in 1994. Their conversation sealed the deal: Olivieri would be a Spider.

“It made an impression on me that he came at the end of his [work] day to talk to a high school senior he may not see again,” Olivieri said. “It wasn’t until my senior year [at Richmond] that I realized the admissions program knew exactly what they were doing.”

Though Olivieri was a math major with an education concentration, he “never really got involved with that department,” he said. “I did my classes, I met with my advisers, but it wasn’t really my home. My home was over at the Fine Arts Building (FAB) — then Modlin when it opened my junior year.” His dedication to the arts played out on the stage, behind the scenes, in recording studios, and as a percussion performance minor.

It was at the FAB that a professor introduced Olivieri to sound design. “I had no idea what [that] was,” Olivieri said. “When they described it as one-third theater, one-third music, and one-third technology, it sounded exactly like something I might be into.”

Today, Olivieri is a professor of sound design at University of California-Irvine teaching courses like video game sound design and sound art.

“[Having an] educational foundation has been really helpful,” Olivieri said. “But teaching at a research university means I am also designing and composing around the world.” He recently traveled to Lagos, Nigeria, to design sound for the world premiere of a folk opera produced by the Crown Troupe of Africa.

Whether his students are entering the entertainment industry or starting their own businesses, the best part of Olivieri’s job is helping them get there. “The most rewarding thing is watching the way our students are transforming our field and knowing we were a part of that growth.”