William D. Moylan

Professor of Sound Recording Technology and Music, University of Massachusetts Lowell
William Moylan is Professor of Sound Recording Technology and Music at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, where he has been the Coordinator of the Sound Recording Technology program since arriving in 1983 and served as the Chairperson of the Department of Music from 1998 to 2006. He has been active in music and recording technology communities for over 35 years, with extensive experience and credits as a record producer, recording engineer, composer, author and educator.

Moylan has been teaching audio recording since 1979. Under his guidance, the recording program at UML has become recognized as one of the strongest in the nation and has gained a significant international presence and reputation.

As producer and engineer, Dr. Moylan has recorded many leading artists and ensembles in a broad cross-section of music genres. His recordings have been released by major and independent record labels and have resulted in wide recognition, including several Grammy Award nominations in the best classical album category and others.

William Moylan’s 2015 book, "Understanding and Crafting the Mix: the Art of Recording," has been adopted by many recording programs world-wide and has been translated into Chinese and Italian. The book is unique in its focus on the artistic and creative aspects of the recording process, its study of how the unique aspects of sound controlled by the recording process can shape music, and the development of critical listening skills for audio production and evaluation. You can see him covering some of this material on YouTube.

Dr. Moylan is an international leader in aural skills pedagogy to develop listening skills for comprehending musical materials in and the unique sound qualities of recordings. His “Critical and Analytical Listening” course has distinguished our undergraduate program and its graduates, and his graduate “Recording Analysis” course is one of the defining experiences of our first in the nation Master of Music in SRT program.

His research has led to further examinations of how the recording process transforms music and musical materials in unique ways, with particular interest in spatial aspects of recordings. This contributed to UMass Lowell being selected as the host institution for the 4th International Art of Record Production Conference in 2008.

William Moylan is the composer of over 40 published compositions encompassing a variety of styles and media, including music meant to be recorded, electronic music, and traditional works for orchestra, chorus, chamber ensembles (vocal and instrumental). Leading artists and ensembles have performed his works throughout North America and in Europe and Japan. Seven of his works are commercially recorded including a CD exclusively of his compositions, “Origins” on Albany Records.

Dr. Moylan holds the Bachelor of Music in Composition from the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University, the Master of Music in Composition from the University of Toronto, and the Doctor of Arts degree in Music Theory and Composition from Ball State University.