AES 2011: Speed Counseling with Experts – Mentoring Answers for Your Career

Friday, October 21, 2011
1:00 PM – 2:30 PM
Room 1E13

Audio Post Track

For more info, visit event Web page.

Hosted by SPARS in cooperation with AES, G.A.N.G., Post NY Alliance and other audio organizations, career related Q&A sessions will be offered to students in a speed group counseling format. A dozen students will interact with 2-3 working professionals in specific audio engineering fields or categories every 15-minutes. Audio engineering fields / categories include record production, mastering, post, sound for film, gaming and live sound.

Counselors:

Leslie Mona-Mathus (ABC News)
Currently Senior Audio Engineer for ABC News, Leslie is an Emmy award winning Audio Mixer/ Editor/ Sound Designer/ Producer. During the course of her thirty plus year career she has earned two Grammy nominations, four Emmy nominations, a Gold Record, a Bafta and multiple Clio and Promax awards. From staff engineer at Automated Sound Studios, to freelancer at major recording studios and music production houses in and around the NYC area, to post-production engineer at Howard Schwartz Recording, and now ABC, Leslie has recorded, designed, edited and mixed numerous CD’s, underscores, jingles, commercials, and promos. Her body of work also includes many long-form projects for major film companies, broadcast / cable networks as well as award winning independent films. As a guest speaker at several universities and secondary schools, Leslie uses her experience and keen interest to present to students in an effort to educate and mentor future generations of audio professionals. Her love of her craft, strong work ethic and commitment to the highest standards of the recording industry, drive her career and artistic endeavors forward, allowing for continued success in an ever-changing industry.

Eric Johnson (Blazing Music & Sound)
Eric began playing music professionally at the age of 16 in a local R&B band in his hometown of Winston-Salem, NC. In 1986, while attending North Carolina State University’s School of Design, Eric founded Johnsound Productions. Eric’s early work included composing, writing, and recording jingles for local and regional clients. Eric also did studio production for artists seeking recording contracts. One of his first clients was Tyka Nelson who is the sister of Grammy Award-winning artist Prince. Eric helped write and arrange Tyka’s first single, Marc Anthony’s Tune which made Billboard Magazine’s Top Forty chart during the summer of 1987. In 1988, Eric began to move away from producing artists and began to concentrate on music for advertising as well as soundtracks for non-broadcast corporate video and film projects for clients such as IBM, Caterpillar, Golden Corral, Nortel, Burroughs Wellcome, Hardee’s, and North Carolina State University. In January of 2003, Eric joined Trailblazer Studios to launch Blazing Music + Sound, the dedicated custom music and sound division of Trailblazer Studios. Blazing Music + Sound provides custom music, recording, mixing, and sound design for advertising agency, film, television, and video game production clients. Blazing Music + Sound currently handles audio post for TLC’s top rated shows Jon & Kate Plus 8 and 18 Kids and Counting. Other clients include advertising agencies McKinney( Travelocity, Quest, NASDAQ), McCann Ericksson (General Motors), television clients National Geographic/Nova, Fine Living Network, The Tennis Channel, and Animal Planet, and gaming companies Virtual Heroes, Red Storm Entertainment, and Codemasters.

Tom Paul (Gigantic Post)
A highly regarded Re-Recording Mixer and Sound Designer, Tom Paul is one of New York City’s most sought after talents in the field of post production audio. Tom got his professional start as a boom operator in 1988, moving on to production mixing in 1991. Some notable titles of his early years in production sound include: Trust, The Wedding Banquet, Eat Drink Man Woman, Little Odessa, Swoon and The Yards. In 1994, his passion for sound lead him to the creative environment of post production. Some highlights of his sound design and re-recordng credits include the Academy Award winning films The Fog of War and Born Into Brothels. Other notable films include: Junebug, Palindromes, The Baxter, The King, and U2 360, the largest selling concert DVD of all time. Most recently, Tom sound designed, mixed and scored a beautiful Bulgarian filmed called Avé, selected for competition in Critic’s Week, at Cannes 2011. Further integrating Tom’s passion for music and sound, he composed and performed original piano music for the film.

Howard Schwartz