The Process: Pardy Minassian
By Sean David Christensen
Graduate Certificate student Pardy Minassian arranged the Super Mario Bros. theme and edited herself into the celebrated video game using newfound music production and video editing skills.
If you’re going to edit yourself into the Super Mario Bros. video game, why stop at only one player? Why not include four of you?
For the Fall 2020 Festival at USC Thornton, Armenian guitarist Pardy Minassian, a Graduate Certificate student in the Classical Guitar program, arranged Koji Kondo’s celebrated video game score for four guitars. When producing her video for this virtual event, she edited together four versions of herself.
“Pardy times four,” said Thornton faculty member Bill Kanengiser, who oversaw the performance and production.
Using software and techniques Minassian learned as a student during remote instruction last fall, she created this innovative solution to performing from home by re-imagining a modern classic of video game music.
“When I knew that it (the Fall 2020 semester) would all be online again, I was a little sad about it,” Minassian said. “But, honestly, I was shocked. Our department is doing really great. We kind of forced ourselves to learn new software.”
Kanengiser added: “It’s just wonderful for me to see how all of these skills have come together and really blossomed for her.”
