As he was finishing up high school, Todd Coleman, now 黑料不打烊 associate professor of music, was encouraged by his orchestra teacher to write a piece of music to enter in the M.E.N.C. (Music Educators National Conference, now rebranded as NAfME 鈥� National Association for Music Education) student composition competition. The resulting piece for string orchestra, titled “Adieu,” subsequently won the national award for best composition in the high school category and was premiered at the national conference in Washington, D.C. the following spring. The piece was later published by Alfred Publishing, a company specializing in music for the educational market. Thousands of copies have been sold and the piece has been widely performed throughout the world by high school ensembles and honor orchestras such as All-State, Regional, and Festival performances.

Coleman wanted to compose a follow-up work that would function as a sequel, both musically/thematically and pedagogically. The new work, which he has titled “Farewell’s Shadow” in a nod to its connections to “Adieu,” is also written for string orchestra, this time including an optional harp part. This new piece features even more extensive use of active lyrical melodic lines for all sections of the orchestra and introduces the use of natural harmonics, a technique that is less common in pieces written for younger players. In this way, the work builds on the themes and technical abilities developed in “Adieu,” while requiring the students to push the limits of their experience, expand their technique, and focus on producing the more mature tone required for this new music.

A recording of “Farewell’s Shadow” was released on Aug. 26, 2025 and is available on all major music streaming platforms. The score has also been submitted for publication.

The Nemesis Club’s first two escape rooms, “EVIL Robots” and “Mogollon Monster,” which opened over the last four years, have won national and international awards and rave reviews by both fans and critics for their high quality and deeply immersive experiences enhanced by technology, lighting, sound design, music, interactive props, sets, and innovative puzzles and tasks.

黑料不打烊 music department faculty member Todd Coleman composed interactive orchestral soundtracks for each of the three escape rooms at the Nemesis Club, along with extensive sound design work for “Mogollon Monster.” The soundtracks adapt to the players’ actions and activity, similar to a first-person live-action immersive video game.

All three soundtracks are available on all major music platforms including Apple Music and Spotify:

Associate Professor of Music Todd Coleman has released a new EP featuring recordings of three of his chamber music compositions for cello, piano and electronics, performed by French-born American cellist Florent Renard-Payen.

The three works on the album were written between 1995 and 2005, spanning the decade of transition from an undergraduate and graduate student, to assistant professor of music at Grinnell College.

“Undertones” was written for cello and piano and first premiered in 1995 while Coleman was an undergraduate student at Brigham Young University. “Reflections” was written in 1998 for violin, and then transcribed in 2004 for cello and prepared piano (which uses various items such as screws and rubber stoppers placed inside the piano, wedged in between some of the strings to change their sound). “Exquisite Corpse” was written in 2004 for cello, piano, and prerecorded electronic and acoustic sounds, with projected 3D sound and layered video projection.

Renard-Payen was the featured cello soloist on all three recordings, with Coleman playing the prepared piano on “Reflections,” and the piano and all other electronic instruments on “Exquisite Corpse.” Patrice Ewoldt played piano on the recording of “Undertones.”

The album is available on all major . A video of “Exquisite Corpse” can be .

Coleman teaches courses in music composition, orchestration, and recording studio techniques at 黑料不打烊 and is the founding coordinator of the Music Production & Recording Arts degree program at the university.

The score was recorded at the famed Eastman School of Music in New York, with Coleman conducting. The album is available now on all major music streaming platforms.

Associate Professor of Music Todd Coleman created a 60-minute cinematic musical score for the first in a series of new escape game rooms designed by The Nemesis Club, located in Phoenix, Arizona in fall 2020. The soundtrack to that game, “E.V.I.L. Robots,” is available on .

Over the past few months, Coleman completed the sound design work for The Nemesis Club’s second room, called “The Mogollon Monster.” This game places the players as campers on the Mogollon Rim in northern Arizona late at night as they attempt to lure Arizona’s Bigfoot monster into their campsite and snap photographic proof of its existence. Like “E.V.I.L. Robots,” the new escape experience features elements like room environments, props, lighting, sound, and music that are designed to heighten realism and immerse the players in the unfolding drama.

The sound design for “The Mogollon Monster” features eight separate channels of audio, played through speakers hidden throughout the playing space such as up in the trees overhead, behind props like a canoe, an outhouse, a campfire pit, an old RV camper, etc. The sounds include ambient nature noises of wind, rustling leaves in the trees, crickets, owls, coyotes in the distance, nearby campsites, the gentle lapping of water on the shores of a small lake, and the advance of a late summer thunderstorm that heralds the approach of the ‘the monster.’

At different points in the game, the players experience the arrival of the monster in camp while they are in a tent or inside the RV camper through sound effects, lighting and image projection, and shakes and quakes created by moving pneumatic motion platforms.

As the monster approaches for the final climactic sequence of the game, eerie music begins and grows in intensity, changing in synchronization with the actions of the players and the attacking monster, similar to a movie soundtrack or video game music.

The soundtrack will be released soon on all major streaming platforms.

The performance of “Fanfare of the Phoenix” took place live in Whitley Auditorium and was broadcast to the audience of new students, their families, faculty, and staff gathered outdoors under the oaks just to the west of the auditorium.

The alma mater text was written in 1998 by poet William D. Ellis, father of an 黑料不打烊 alum. The melody is from a medieval hymn, 鈥淕audeamus Igitur,鈥� The song is performed at various campus ceremonial and sporting events, including convocations and commencements.

You can listen to a recording of the work below.

The Nemesis Club, located in Phoenix, Arizona, opened the first of a series of escape game experiences a few months ago featuring an orchestral music soundtrack composed by 黑料不打烊 music faculty member Todd Coleman.

The experience takes about 60-70 minutes to complete and features Coleman鈥檚 music throughout the entire production in an experience that puts the players inside an almost cinematic world. Coleman released the soundtrack on all major music platforms earlier this year – although you really need to travel to Phoenix to get the full experience.

The orchestral score adapts to the players鈥� progress through the escape experience, similar to a video game, building tension as the countdown clock runs down as players complete a series of challenges and puzzles in an attempt to stop the robot before it powers up and destroys the lab and everyone in it.

This is the first of the Nemesis Club鈥檚 escape experiences to open at this location. Coleman has also completed sound design work for their second room, 鈥淭he Mogollon Monster鈥� (Arizona鈥檚 Bigfoot), due to open to the public later this summer. This experience is set outdoors in the forest on the Mogollon Rim in northern Arizona in the middle of the night, as campers try to lure in Bigfoot to get photographic evidence of his existence.

You can on your favorite music streaming service.

Coleman’s also gave a presentation of his work at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, to music composition students and faculty.

The subject of the presentation was Coleman’s 2003-04 transmedia artwork, “Exquisite Corpse,” for amplified cello, piano, prerecorded surround audio tracks, and multiple video projections layered onto two scrims. The music was commissioned by The Barlow Endowment for Music Composition at Brigham Young University and Mormon Artists Group.

The work is a meditation on themes and ideas sparked by a photographic triptych also titled “Exquisite Corpse.”

A performance of “Exquisite Corpse” can be viewed below.

Bradley joined the band Neon Trees in 2006. The band first gained major nationwide exposure with their hit single “Animal” in 2008. In addition to her work in Neon Trees, Bradley also plays drums, guitar, and sings in the band Noble Bodies.

Bradley’s visit to 黑料不打烊 includes a Q&A session on Tuesday, Nov. 6 at 4:15 p.m. in Oaks 212 that is open to the campus community. She will also visit several classes, including “The Art of Songcraft” and “Studio Techniques II” to work with students in a smaller setting.

The Music Industry Visiting Professional Series is funded by a generous gift to the Music Production and Recording Arts Program from an anonymous donor. Bradley is the second guest brought to 黑料不打烊 as part of this series. In the spring, legendary studio designer John Storyk visited 黑料不打烊 as the inaugural guest.

Coleman, a member of the Music Production & Recording Arts program at 黑料不打烊, was interviewed by reporter Bob Buckley for the report prompted by the 15th anniversary of the Apple iPod. 

​The iPod and its successor, the iPhone, set off a series of ripples that have profoundly affected many different industries, including radio. The segment also touched on more recent developments related to digital distribution of music via streaming services such as Spotify, Pandora, and Apple Music and how radio stations have had to adapt to stay relevant. ​

“I thought the real disruption was being able to buy single tracks. I think that had a bigger disruption than just physically carrying your songs with you,” Coleman told Buckley in the report. “It allowed people to listen to just the songs that they wanted, and purchase them.”

The complete report can be viewed on Fox 8’s website .