ABOUT THE FOUNDERS
Steven Lee Berman, Eng. & JD, is an engineer, attorney, educator, and Co-Founder of DIGIVATIONS. His interdisciplinary career spans aerospace and technology, law, education, entrepreneurship, and nonprofit leadership. Drawing upon his experience with NASA-related science and technology initiatives, Steve helps students understand how engineers approach complex questions through investigation, systems thinking, experimentation, design, and collaboration. He is especially interested in the connections among engineering, music, scientific discovery, emerging technologies, and imaginative storytelling.
In SoundQuest Studio, Steve will lead selected classes and collaborate with Anne Deane Berman, PhD, on multidisciplinary projects. He will guide students as they explore cellphone sensors, data tracking, interactive systems, creative technologies, and the engineering processes that can transform an imaginative idea into a working project. As a Co-Founder of DIGIVATIONS, Steve has helped design innovative educational experiences that encourage young people to become confident, ethical, and creative leaders. His teaching invites students to ask ambitious questions, test their ideas, learn through experimentation, and consider how their work can contribute to the wider world.
Anne Deane Berman, PhD, is an award-winning composer, interdisciplinary artist, educator, and Co-Founder of DIGIVATIONS. She holds a Bachelor of Music in Composition from Oberlin Conservatory and earned her MA and PhD in Music Composition & Computer Music from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Her work brings together orchestral and electroacoustic music, immersive environments, virtual reality, science, technology, and storytelling. Through SoundQuest Studio, she helps young people develop the creative confidence to listen deeply, cross disciplinary boundaries, and transform their ideas into original works.
Together, the Berman's have collaborated on several pieces. Above is an early interview of their work.
Steven Lee Berman, Eng. & JD, is an engineer, attorney, educator, and Co-Founder of DIGIVATIONS. His interdisciplinary career spans aerospace and technology, law, education, entrepreneurship, and nonprofit leadership. Drawing upon his experience with NASA-related science and technology initiatives, Steve helps students understand how engineers approach complex questions through investigation, systems thinking, experimentation, design, and collaboration. He is especially interested in the connections among engineering, music, scientific discovery, emerging technologies, and imaginative storytelling.
In SoundQuest Studio, Steve will lead selected classes and collaborate with Anne Deane Berman, PhD, on multidisciplinary projects. He will guide students as they explore cellphone sensors, data tracking, interactive systems, creative technologies, and the engineering processes that can transform an imaginative idea into a working project. As a Co-Founder of DIGIVATIONS, Steve has helped design innovative educational experiences that encourage young people to become confident, ethical, and creative leaders. His teaching invites students to ask ambitious questions, test their ideas, learn through experimentation, and consider how their work can contribute to the wider world.
Anne Deane Berman, PhD, is an award-winning composer, interdisciplinary artist, educator, and Co-Founder of DIGIVATIONS. She holds a Bachelor of Music in Composition from Oberlin Conservatory and earned her MA and PhD in Music Composition & Computer Music from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Her work brings together orchestral and electroacoustic music, immersive environments, virtual reality, science, technology, and storytelling. Through SoundQuest Studio, she helps young people develop the creative confidence to listen deeply, cross disciplinary boundaries, and transform their ideas into original works.
Together, the Berman's have collaborated on several pieces. Above is an early interview of their work.
LEARN MORE: DIGIVATIONS SOUNDQUEST STUDIO ONLINE
Create Music. Engineer Sound. Build New Worlds.
DIGIVATIONS SoundQuest Studio is a multidisciplinary online creative learning experience where music, engineering, science, technology, and storytelling come together.
Founded and led by award-winning composer and DIGIVATIONS Co-Founder Anne Deane Berman, PhD, with Director Dr. Steven Lee Berman, SoundQuest Studio invites young people ages 9–17 to use sound to explore ideas, scientific systems, imagined worlds, and meaningful stories. In the process, students discover their creative voices and expand their understanding of what they can design and build.
WHAT WILL STUDENTS CREATE?
Students will compose music, design sounds, investigate scientific ideas, experiment with interactive technologies, and build original multimedia worlds.
For example, students might use the sensors in their cellphones to track movement, location, light, or sound and transform that information into an original musical composition, interactive soundscape, or multimedia story.
A walk through the neighborhood could become a location-based symphony. A dance could generate changing rhythms and harmonies. Environmental sounds could become the foundation for an interactive musical world. Students might also design music for an imagined planet, create the soundscape of a future city, or explore how scientific data can be translated into sound.
Each project combines creative expression with experimentation, problem-solving, and collaborative design.
A MULTIDISCIPLINARY APPROACH
SoundQuest Studio encourages students to think like artists, engineers, scientists, and inventors. They explore how sound is created, measured, shaped, recorded, and used to communicate ideas.
Students may contribute to projects through several interconnected creative roles:
FALL ONLINE COHORTS
SoundQuest Explorers | Ages 9–12 A playful introduction to sound, music, engineering, movement, storytelling, and creative technology. Students experiment with accessible tools and complete guided individual and collaborative projects.
SoundQuest Creators | Ages 13–17 A deeper exploration of composition, sound design, engineering, sensor-based projects, interactive media, and world-building. Students make independent creative choices and develop original work for a final portfolio or presentation.
Cohorts are intentionally small so that students receive individualized guidance while building meaningful creative relationships with their peers.
EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES AND AI
Thoughtful experimentation with emerging technologies, including AI, may be incorporated when it supports the creative and educational goals of a project.
Students remain the composers, designers, and decision-makers. They learn to use technology responsibly as a tool for investigation, invention, and creative development. Any AI-assisted material must be identified, evaluated, and thoughtfully shaped by the student.
Only instructor-approved, age-appropriate tools will be used. Students will never be required to use generative AI to complete a project.
NO PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE REQUIRED
Students do not need previous experience in music composition, engineering, coding, or sound design. SoundQuest Studio welcomes curious, imaginative young people who want to explore how music, science, technology, and storytelling can work together.
Students with previous experience will receive opportunities to extend their skills through more advanced creative challenges.
CAPSTONE AND PORTFOLIO PROJECTS FOR COLLEGE APPLICATIONS
For high school students preparing college applications, SoundQuest Studio can provide the foundation for a compelling interdisciplinary capstone project. With individualized guidance, students can develop an original work that brings together music, engineering, science, technology, storytelling, and social impact.
A student might create an interactive composition controlled by cellphone movement, transform environmental data into music, engineer a location-based soundwalk, design the soundscape of an imagined world, or build a multimedia work addressing a question that matters deeply to them.
These projects can become meaningful additions to college portfolios, supplemental materials, personal essays, interviews, and independent research presentations. Each student can document the project’s creative process, technical development, challenges, revisions, and final outcome.
A strong capstone project helps colleges see more than a student’s grades and activities. It demonstrates curiosity, initiative, sustained commitment, creative problem-solving, and the ability to connect ideas across disciplines. It also gives students something distinctive and authentic to discuss in their applications: a substantial original work that reflects who they are, how they think, and what they hope to contribute.
Students remain responsible for the central ideas and creative decisions in their capstone work. Any use of emerging technologies, including AI, must be purposeful, transparent, and consistent with the project’s educational goals.
JOIN SOUNDQUEST STUDIO
Fall Semester Online Classes
For students ages 9–17
Small, interactive online cohorts
No previous music or engineering experience required
[JOIN THE FALL INTEREST LIST]
[REQUEST REGISTRATION INFORMATION]
Create Music. Engineer Sound. Build New Worlds.
DIGIVATIONS SoundQuest Studio is a multidisciplinary online creative learning experience where music, engineering, science, technology, and storytelling come together.
Founded and led by award-winning composer and DIGIVATIONS Co-Founder Anne Deane Berman, PhD, with Director Dr. Steven Lee Berman, SoundQuest Studio invites young people ages 9–17 to use sound to explore ideas, scientific systems, imagined worlds, and meaningful stories. In the process, students discover their creative voices and expand their understanding of what they can design and build.
WHAT WILL STUDENTS CREATE?
Students will compose music, design sounds, investigate scientific ideas, experiment with interactive technologies, and build original multimedia worlds.
For example, students might use the sensors in their cellphones to track movement, location, light, or sound and transform that information into an original musical composition, interactive soundscape, or multimedia story.
A walk through the neighborhood could become a location-based symphony. A dance could generate changing rhythms and harmonies. Environmental sounds could become the foundation for an interactive musical world. Students might also design music for an imagined planet, create the soundscape of a future city, or explore how scientific data can be translated into sound.
Each project combines creative expression with experimentation, problem-solving, and collaborative design.
A MULTIDISCIPLINARY APPROACH
SoundQuest Studio encourages students to think like artists, engineers, scientists, and inventors. They explore how sound is created, measured, shaped, recorded, and used to communicate ideas.
Students may contribute to projects through several interconnected creative roles:
- Composer and Sound Designer
- Engineer and Creative Technologist
- Storyteller and World-Builder
- Performer and Movement Designer
FALL ONLINE COHORTS
SoundQuest Explorers | Ages 9–12 A playful introduction to sound, music, engineering, movement, storytelling, and creative technology. Students experiment with accessible tools and complete guided individual and collaborative projects.
SoundQuest Creators | Ages 13–17 A deeper exploration of composition, sound design, engineering, sensor-based projects, interactive media, and world-building. Students make independent creative choices and develop original work for a final portfolio or presentation.
Cohorts are intentionally small so that students receive individualized guidance while building meaningful creative relationships with their peers.
EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES AND AI
Thoughtful experimentation with emerging technologies, including AI, may be incorporated when it supports the creative and educational goals of a project.
Students remain the composers, designers, and decision-makers. They learn to use technology responsibly as a tool for investigation, invention, and creative development. Any AI-assisted material must be identified, evaluated, and thoughtfully shaped by the student.
Only instructor-approved, age-appropriate tools will be used. Students will never be required to use generative AI to complete a project.
NO PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE REQUIRED
Students do not need previous experience in music composition, engineering, coding, or sound design. SoundQuest Studio welcomes curious, imaginative young people who want to explore how music, science, technology, and storytelling can work together.
Students with previous experience will receive opportunities to extend their skills through more advanced creative challenges.
CAPSTONE AND PORTFOLIO PROJECTS FOR COLLEGE APPLICATIONS
For high school students preparing college applications, SoundQuest Studio can provide the foundation for a compelling interdisciplinary capstone project. With individualized guidance, students can develop an original work that brings together music, engineering, science, technology, storytelling, and social impact.
A student might create an interactive composition controlled by cellphone movement, transform environmental data into music, engineer a location-based soundwalk, design the soundscape of an imagined world, or build a multimedia work addressing a question that matters deeply to them.
These projects can become meaningful additions to college portfolios, supplemental materials, personal essays, interviews, and independent research presentations. Each student can document the project’s creative process, technical development, challenges, revisions, and final outcome.
A strong capstone project helps colleges see more than a student’s grades and activities. It demonstrates curiosity, initiative, sustained commitment, creative problem-solving, and the ability to connect ideas across disciplines. It also gives students something distinctive and authentic to discuss in their applications: a substantial original work that reflects who they are, how they think, and what they hope to contribute.
Students remain responsible for the central ideas and creative decisions in their capstone work. Any use of emerging technologies, including AI, must be purposeful, transparent, and consistent with the project’s educational goals.
JOIN SOUNDQUEST STUDIO
Fall Semester Online Classes
For students ages 9–17
Small, interactive online cohorts
No previous music or engineering experience required
[JOIN THE FALL INTEREST LIST]
[REQUEST REGISTRATION INFORMATION]
DIGIVATIONS INSTITUTE STUDENT WORKS (LISTEN)
DIGIVATIONS STUDENT WORKS
Prerequisites: Beginning to advanced performance and interest in composition. Contact Dr. Berman with your interest: [email protected].
🚀 Introducing SoundQuest Studio: Where Young Composers Become Changemakers
💡
Featured Student Composition (Click to Listen):
Featured Student Composition
Program Note:
In 2019, when I was 16, I visited the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC and the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City. This piece is my attempt to process the unspeakable events that I witnessed. Music speaks in place of words.
From the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum:
“The Holocaust was the systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its allies and collaborators. Holocaust is a word of Greek origin meaning "sacrifice by fire.” …In addition to 6 million Jewish, there were more than 11 million people who were murdered: Roma, people with disabilities, some of the Slavic peoples (Poles, Russians, and others), Soviet prisoners of war, and Black people. Other groups were persecuted on political, ideological, and behavioral grounds, among them Communists, Socialists, Jehovah's Witnesses, and homosexuals."
This piece represents the horrific train transport to one of the concentration camps, the confinement, persecution and murder of Jewish prisoners by the Nazis prior to and during World War II.
At the start of the piece, the listener is invited to imagine a train filled with more than 1000 Jews as it enters the Auschwitz Concentration Camp. The piece is cut short with a striking representation of the individuals' death in the gas chamber.
IMAGINARY WORLDS WORLD BUILDING THROUGH MUSIC
SCI-FI AND OTHER FANTASY GENRES -- HOW WE CREATE THEM AND WHY WE SUSPEND OUR DISBELIEF
An Overview of the Curriculum Designed by Internationally Performed Composer, Co-Founder Anne Deane Berman, PhD
Music leaves so much unsaid. When we listen to music, we create the images as our minds wander. We become the world builders. This summer, DIGIVATIONS CAMP DEMIGOD INSTITUTE Co-Founder Anne Deane Berman, PhD along with Faculty will teach an all-camp series which encourages demigods to use the innovation, philosophical and STEM concepts they learn in Co-Founder Dr. Steve’s Innovation Classes to create improvisatory soundscapes, original songs, instrumental compositions, and interactive sonic environments.
OUTCOMES:
Students will explore ways in which music can bring meaning and magic to words and images, and as an underscore to our daily camp lives which include adventurous quests, magical star gazing and quiet moments in the hammock garden. Dr. Anne’s method not only enhances students’ musical skills, but also develops a sense of creative individuality in extra-musical pursuits. Every student who comes to Camp Demigod will be exposed to the music curriculum as one of the fundamental classes along with Innovation Class. Dr. Steve Berman's Innovation Class offers daily creative engagement challenges for composers, based on scientific and innovation themes. Nearly all students will compose one short piece in the medium of their choice. These new works will be based on the campers’ innovative design thinking, creative writing, art works or theatrical character expressions and will be given performances by the faculty, fellow students, or through computer. Another goal of the music curriculum will be to open campers’ ears to the sounds of the natural world around them, thus exposing them to perhaps the most fertile and underused source for new music: the world in which we live.
In 2019, when I was 16, I visited the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC and the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City. This piece is my attempt to process the unspeakable events that I witnessed. Music speaks in place of words.
From the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum:
“The Holocaust was the systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its allies and collaborators. Holocaust is a word of Greek origin meaning "sacrifice by fire.” …In addition to 6 million Jewish, there were more than 11 million people who were murdered: Roma, people with disabilities, some of the Slavic peoples (Poles, Russians, and others), Soviet prisoners of war, and Black people. Other groups were persecuted on political, ideological, and behavioral grounds, among them Communists, Socialists, Jehovah's Witnesses, and homosexuals."
This piece represents the horrific train transport to one of the concentration camps, the confinement, persecution and murder of Jewish prisoners by the Nazis prior to and during World War II.
At the start of the piece, the listener is invited to imagine a train filled with more than 1000 Jews as it enters the Auschwitz Concentration Camp. The piece is cut short with a striking representation of the individuals' death in the gas chamber.
IMAGINARY WORLDS WORLD BUILDING THROUGH MUSIC
SCI-FI AND OTHER FANTASY GENRES -- HOW WE CREATE THEM AND WHY WE SUSPEND OUR DISBELIEF
An Overview of the Curriculum Designed by Internationally Performed Composer, Co-Founder Anne Deane Berman, PhD
Music leaves so much unsaid. When we listen to music, we create the images as our minds wander. We become the world builders. This summer, DIGIVATIONS CAMP DEMIGOD INSTITUTE Co-Founder Anne Deane Berman, PhD along with Faculty will teach an all-camp series which encourages demigods to use the innovation, philosophical and STEM concepts they learn in Co-Founder Dr. Steve’s Innovation Classes to create improvisatory soundscapes, original songs, instrumental compositions, and interactive sonic environments.
OUTCOMES:
Students will explore ways in which music can bring meaning and magic to words and images, and as an underscore to our daily camp lives which include adventurous quests, magical star gazing and quiet moments in the hammock garden. Dr. Anne’s method not only enhances students’ musical skills, but also develops a sense of creative individuality in extra-musical pursuits. Every student who comes to Camp Demigod will be exposed to the music curriculum as one of the fundamental classes along with Innovation Class. Dr. Steve Berman's Innovation Class offers daily creative engagement challenges for composers, based on scientific and innovation themes. Nearly all students will compose one short piece in the medium of their choice. These new works will be based on the campers’ innovative design thinking, creative writing, art works or theatrical character expressions and will be given performances by the faculty, fellow students, or through computer. Another goal of the music curriculum will be to open campers’ ears to the sounds of the natural world around them, thus exposing them to perhaps the most fertile and underused source for new music: the world in which we live.
Daft Punk were a French electronic music duo formed in 1993 in Paris by
Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter.
Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter.
WORLD BUILDING IN MUSIC LITERATURE:
Music can help us understand a different perspective on the world we’re building; it can color the way we imagine and see it; and it can shape the reading or dramatic experience. When science fiction and fantasy writers consider the task of world building, music gives meaning to aspects of a fictional setting: technology, magic systems, climate and topography, fantastical creatures, nations and monarchs, race, culture, dress, religion, economy, and so on. We will touch on different composers who use music to enhance the characters and places of a world: Ancient Greek music (Camp Half-Blood), classical (Wagner’s operas, Stravinsky’s dance music “Rite of Spring”),Ravel Piano Concerto in G, jazz (Miles Davis), musical theater (Ahrens & Flaherty- Cartoon world in Seussical, to the afro-carrbean feel of Once on this Island, to 1920's America in Ragtime. Also, a popular favorite will be looking at the works of Lin Manuel Miranda), the eclectic Stromae and French House Movement Daft Punk, Batman Soundtrack, experimental (Steve Reich and Laurie Anderson) and popular (the indie band Vertigo Drift and Legend of Zelda’s Kōji Kondō), who all create an expanded universe of sound through collaboration with visual artists, writers and filmmakers. Campers will also learn how the background music in games can help to create player immersion (or not).
MUSIC COMPOSITION:
Students will bring their original characters and worlds to life through music, sound, art, movement, words, etc. Linear sound design for dramatic effect and basic concepts of form in music will be discussed. Depending on the skill level and interest of the Demigod, the result could be anything from a sound world that is graphically notated and performed by the campers, music that are described by the Demigod to the faculty who improvise using the camper’s vision of their world or character, to traditional notation that is either performed by the student or faculty/staff. The final result may be a finished piece that can accompany a drawing of their character or their world that they create with the help of Art Faculty. Their music may drive text or a story line with the help of our Creative Writing Faculty. All the elements might come together in a multi-media performance.
MUSIC SKILLS:
All students receive a basic introduction to Musicianship, Instrumentation, Graphic and Standard Notation. Depending on time, camper expertise and interest, more experienced students will delve into Experimental Acoustics and Basics of Digital Audio Signal Processing, Computer Musicianship, Writing for Voice, and Interactive Video Game Scoring using their own computer.E
Music can help us understand a different perspective on the world we’re building; it can color the way we imagine and see it; and it can shape the reading or dramatic experience. When science fiction and fantasy writers consider the task of world building, music gives meaning to aspects of a fictional setting: technology, magic systems, climate and topography, fantastical creatures, nations and monarchs, race, culture, dress, religion, economy, and so on. We will touch on different composers who use music to enhance the characters and places of a world: Ancient Greek music (Camp Half-Blood), classical (Wagner’s operas, Stravinsky’s dance music “Rite of Spring”),Ravel Piano Concerto in G, jazz (Miles Davis), musical theater (Ahrens & Flaherty- Cartoon world in Seussical, to the afro-carrbean feel of Once on this Island, to 1920's America in Ragtime. Also, a popular favorite will be looking at the works of Lin Manuel Miranda), the eclectic Stromae and French House Movement Daft Punk, Batman Soundtrack, experimental (Steve Reich and Laurie Anderson) and popular (the indie band Vertigo Drift and Legend of Zelda’s Kōji Kondō), who all create an expanded universe of sound through collaboration with visual artists, writers and filmmakers. Campers will also learn how the background music in games can help to create player immersion (or not).
MUSIC COMPOSITION:
Students will bring their original characters and worlds to life through music, sound, art, movement, words, etc. Linear sound design for dramatic effect and basic concepts of form in music will be discussed. Depending on the skill level and interest of the Demigod, the result could be anything from a sound world that is graphically notated and performed by the campers, music that are described by the Demigod to the faculty who improvise using the camper’s vision of their world or character, to traditional notation that is either performed by the student or faculty/staff. The final result may be a finished piece that can accompany a drawing of their character or their world that they create with the help of Art Faculty. Their music may drive text or a story line with the help of our Creative Writing Faculty. All the elements might come together in a multi-media performance.
MUSIC SKILLS:
All students receive a basic introduction to Musicianship, Instrumentation, Graphic and Standard Notation. Depending on time, camper expertise and interest, more experienced students will delve into Experimental Acoustics and Basics of Digital Audio Signal Processing, Computer Musicianship, Writing for Voice, and Interactive Video Game Scoring using their own computer.E