Dan Hocott contributes to local hospital music therapy program
11/1/2008, Reprinted from MidState Medical Cancer Center, Meriden, CT
Music has been shown to benefit cancer patients and survivors in profound ways. It reduces stress, calms and relaxes, and provides a welcomed distraction. The Cancer Center is introducing its very first music therapy CD to be offered to members of its Survivorships Clinics and other patients who are interested. Entitled Circle of Healing: Music for Body, Mind and Spirit, the CD includes seven tracks of peaceful music and one track of guided meditation led by oncology social worker Diane Lafferty. Music composition and production was spearheaded by one of MidState’s music therapy musicians, Dan Hocott, whose wife was treated at MidState. Special thanks to Dan for the use of his recording studio Gabriel Productions in Southington. |
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Following In Great Footsteps
5/6/2008, Reprinted from ReminderNews,
Director Judy Harper of the Connecticut Audubon Center at Glastonbury said the tipping point was Al Gore's movie "An Inconvenient Truth," which focused attention on the future of the Earth. "
A lot of people with busy lives weren't making the time to think about it," she said. "Its time has come." Harper was talking about climate change and the growing awareness of it that was evident at Saturday's Earth Fair - the 19th for the Center. |
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New England Podcasting Pro Takes the Mystery Out of New Technology
5/2/2007, Reprinted from www.RealTown.com
As technology has increasingly woven itself into the very fabric of the real estate industry, the question has arisen more than once, "How do we maintain the warmth of personal contact in a virtual world"? That's the very goal of Gabriel Recording.
Gabriel Recording is a professional recording facility specializing in audio for our industry. Owner Dan Hocott spent over 25 years in the housing industry as REALTOR, home builder, remodeler and kitchen designer. Also a musician, he considered the housing industry his "day job" while at the same time maintaining a profitable recording studio. The dilemma was how to bring these two seemingly divers fields together. This was accomplished in 2005 when Hocott began to target his recording efforts to the industry he loved.
Today, Gabriel Recording is helping to guide the way into "warm technology." He creates a personal touch to the Internet revolution by adding audio –- voice and music -– to web sites, newsletters, and E-Learning. This can be as simple as a personal audio "Welcome Message"' on a real estate website or as complex as a three-hour multi-media continuing education class on "Real Estate Ethics." Hocott has worked in many facets of the industry. He helps real estate trainers and educators create audio and multi-media CDs/DVDs of their classes and seminars which they offer for sale at conferences and on-line. He provides script assistance, artistic direction, music and professional voice-over talent, as well as duplication and packaging. Part of the move to warm technology is the podcasting boom. Still a mystery to many, Hocott demystifies the process and bring real estate podcasting to new markets.
Gabriel Recording assists with format, script, web phone interviews, voice and music recording, as well as posting the finished podcast to the internet. He also compiles and edits audio recorded by others, creating a broadcast-ready program. Often the question is posed: "Can't I create my own audio with simple PowerPoint software and the microphone that came with my computer?" Hocott has coined a word for this phenomenon which he calls ARBA, which stands for Audio Recording By Agent which he explains is similar to a FSBO -– "sure it can be done, but there are tools that a professional has that a do-it-yourself approach lacks –- experience, quality, knowledge, and," he adds, "the right equipment".
One of the most unique aspects of Hocott's company is Remote Recording. Located in Connecticut, Gabriel Recording is central to thousands of real estate brokerages and agents, none of whom have the time to seek out a recording studio or audio producer. Hocott's unique approach brings a compact remote recording studio right to the client and into the comfortable environment of their office or home, saving both time and money. He will travel anywhere in New England, New York and New Jersey. For those beyond geographical reach, Hocott explains that by utilizing Skype (an internet phone service), complete podcasts can be produced from anywhere in the world in his Connecticut studio.
Dan is also available on a consulting basis to assess individual audio needs and develop a product to satisfy your personal or company goals. For the more adventurous, Hocott can set up a professional recording studio for real estate agents and brokers in their own offices and train them to create their own pro audio programs. |
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How It All Started
3/22/2007, Reprinted from Hartford Courant
On New Year's Eve in 1998, Mickey Koth and John Kalinowski were a last-minute collaboration at an event sponsored by the New Haven Contra Dancers. The duo enjoyed their teamwork and decided to build a band.
In the next three years, Kasha Breau, Dan Hocott and Peter Delaney joined them, forming the Wild Notes. Delaney, a South Windsor resident, defines the Wild Notes genre as Celtic, but explains that's actually a wide spectrum of cultural influences. "It incorporates Irish, of course, but also Scottish, Appalachian, French Canadian, Cape Breton, traditional Americana and other forms of traditional music," he says. "The band must, however, trim its creative sails - rhythmically, at least - when playing dances, as it is primarily and fundamentally important to the dance and the dancers that the band provide a steady and danceable beat for the dance to succeed. Bands who cannot play tunes at stated metric speed suitable to dance figures do not find themselves with much work." And Wild Notes hasn't been lacking for work, with recent gigs including Waterbury's Mattatuck Museum on March 1 as part of the "First Thursday" concert series and an upcoming appearance in conjunction with April's Connecticut Forum discussion series at the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts in Hartford.
Wild Notes has also been a staple at many New England summer festivals. The group released a CD, "Sowing," in 2004, and a second CD, "Branching Out," in February. A new website (www.wildnotes.us) went live on New Year's Day.
The Net has been a major help to the band, Delaney says, allowing for continual updates on new gigs, and CD sales on their site and also on CD Baby and iTunes.
Though Wild Notes members would love to pursue music full time, all maintain "day jobs." And their occupations are as diverse as their sounds: Breau is a teacher at the Connecticut Audubon Society, Kalinowski a test engineer at Pratt & Whitney, and Koth the music librarian at Yale University. Hocott produces books on tape, and Delaney is an accountant. Curiously, Delaney's outside work proved the most commercially rewarding for Wild Notes. " I sold 50 copies of our CD 'Sowing' last year to my tax clients, who were very enthusiastic. |
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