Spring Break
UNH mathematician finds equation for Grammy success
Erica Brien
Issue date: 2/15/08 Section: News
Kevin Short, a UNH mathematics professor, won a Grammy award last Sunday Feb. 10 for his work on the restoration of a Woody Guthrie wire recording from a live concert in 1949.
Short worked with multiple people to produce "The Live Wire: Woody Guthrie in Performance 1949." He collaborated with Nora Guthrie, Woody Guthrie's daughter; Jamie Howarth, a specialist in music restoration; Jorge Arevalo Mateus, the Woody Guthrie Archives creator; and Steve Rosenthal and Warren Russell-Smith, members of a recording studio in New York called The Magic Shop.
The recording beat four other nominees in the historical category. Short and his team were awarded the Grammy in the pre-telecast portion of the Grammy's event. Short said the experience was unreal.
"Thank god the lights were so bright that they were blinding," said Short. "I do not know if I could have handled seeing the crowd that we stood in front of. It was an incredible experience."
Short said that he did not realize he had won a Grammy award until he saw the other members of the team get out of their seats and head towards the stage.
"It was want of those 'pinch me, am I really here' moments," said Short. "When they announced it, the first thing that ran through my head was 'did I hear that right?'"
UNH President Mark Huddleston said that it is a great honor for the university to have a Grammy award winning mathematician on campus.
"Professor Kevin Short was the founder of UNH's first spin-out company, Chaoticom, and this Grammy for his role in the restoration of a 1949 bootleg wire recording of folksinger Woody Guthrie is another example of his ability to relate complex mathematics to real life," said Huddleston.
Robert Stibler, a music professor at UNH, said that music restoration makes it possible for today's society to go back in time and study what music used to sound like. Stibler said that live music in the past was greatly appreciated and the fact that Short's restoration was of a live concert makes it so much more important to music.
Short worked with multiple people to produce "The Live Wire: Woody Guthrie in Performance 1949." He collaborated with Nora Guthrie, Woody Guthrie's daughter; Jamie Howarth, a specialist in music restoration; Jorge Arevalo Mateus, the Woody Guthrie Archives creator; and Steve Rosenthal and Warren Russell-Smith, members of a recording studio in New York called The Magic Shop.
The recording beat four other nominees in the historical category. Short and his team were awarded the Grammy in the pre-telecast portion of the Grammy's event. Short said the experience was unreal.
"Thank god the lights were so bright that they were blinding," said Short. "I do not know if I could have handled seeing the crowd that we stood in front of. It was an incredible experience."
Short said that he did not realize he had won a Grammy award until he saw the other members of the team get out of their seats and head towards the stage.
"It was want of those 'pinch me, am I really here' moments," said Short. "When they announced it, the first thing that ran through my head was 'did I hear that right?'"
UNH President Mark Huddleston said that it is a great honor for the university to have a Grammy award winning mathematician on campus.
"Professor Kevin Short was the founder of UNH's first spin-out company, Chaoticom, and this Grammy for his role in the restoration of a 1949 bootleg wire recording of folksinger Woody Guthrie is another example of his ability to relate complex mathematics to real life," said Huddleston.
Robert Stibler, a music professor at UNH, said that music restoration makes it possible for today's society to go back in time and study what music used to sound like. Stibler said that live music in the past was greatly appreciated and the fact that Short's restoration was of a live concert makes it so much more important to music.
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