It’s a little-known fact that DJ/producer Francis Preve is also a professor at Austin Community College. This Texas-based school offers one of the most comprehensive music business programs in the state—with areas of focus ranging from management and promotion to audio engineering and electronic music production. The Commercial Music Management curriculum at ACC is one of the many reasons Austin holds the title of “Live Music Capitol of the World.”

Preve—whose tracks have topped both the Billboard and Beatport charts in the past few years—is one of the principal faculty members teaching the school’s electronic music courses, which include synthesizer programming and remixing. Alumnus of his sound design classes include white-hot trance wünderkinds, Tritonal, and Meason Wiley—inventor of a set of open-source gestural laser controllers that are creating quite a buzz in the DIY tech world.

“M-Audio® and Digidesign® products are an integral part of our electronic music program here,” enthuses Preve. “It’s really important that our students work with the same gear that the pros use. For example, the main studio here has a full Pro Tools|HD rig, and our MIDI lab for student projects features Oxygen 8 controllers at every workstation. The electronic music classroom relies on a Keystation Pro 88 as the sole controller, since its features cover all the bases—from hands-on knobs and faders to a hammer-action keyboard. This way, when students get their degree from ACC, they’re familiar with the tools of the real world.”

To assist Francis in supporting the work of his ACC students this holiday season, M-Audio has donated a bit of equipment to ensure that the most promising producers of tomorrow get the resources they really need today.

Let’s raise a toast to ACC’s music program—and Francis Preve’s efforts to train the next round of electronic dance music wizards.