As a professor of media and lighting design courses that can run upwards of three hours, Abbey Rosen Holmes understands the value of a coffee break. But when she encourages her students to take 10 minutes to refocus, many of them don't move. They would rather continue chatting with Holmes-about everything from show designs to the weekend's news-until class is restarted. "Everyone feels really comfortable with her, which is what I think helps make her so successful as a teacher," says senior Kendra Albert, who has had several classes with Holmes.
Her success isn't limited to the classroom. Before joining the School of Drama faculty in 2009, Holmes built an international reputation working in concert and architectural lighting, projection, film, television, and corporate events. Her concert work-for artists ranging from Miley Cyrus to Shakira (above) to Roger Waters of Pink Floyd fame-is a high-profile part of her impressive rÇsumÇ. More recently, she has been involved in the project "YouTube Play: A Biennial of Creative Video," presented on both youtube.com/play and last fall at the Guggenheim museums in New York, Berlin, Bilbao, and Venice.
Holmes's stature in the industry lends a unique perspective to her classes. While creating her courses, she solicits input from industry insiders about the qualities they look for in designers. And in the past year, her classes have had backstage access to Jay-Z and Rush concerts. "Lighting is hard to learn only by talking about it," she says.
Holmes continues to work professionally as a partner and founder of NYXdesign, based in New York and Los Angeles, and was recently recognized as one of the Top 50 Most Powerful People in Entertainment Technology by Live Design magazine.
-Olivia O'Connor (A'13)
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Lighting Professor Named One of 50 Most Powerful in Entertainment Technology
