The 2022 Leading Women in Audio Conference returns on Feb. 25 and Feb. 26, with both in-person and online sessions.

“Last year’s conference had 180 registered attendees,” said Fred Johnson, lecturer in music. “They represented 14 universities and six high schools, from several states and four different countries. The Student Steering Committee is working hard to provide this year’s event in a hybrid context.”

Workshops will cover topics such as live sound, audio post-production for television, microphone technique, music licensing, concert production, mixing vocals and a DJ session. Panels will discuss Entering the Professional World, Building Community on ľĂľĂČČes and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion.

Returning presenters include:

• Leslie Mona-Mathus, ABC News Marketing and Creative
• Marcella Araica, Dream Asylum Studio
• Tess Mangum, Sonic Pie Productions
• Liz May, SoundLizzard
• Aurelia Belfield, Trailblazer Studios

They will be joined by new presenters Jasmine Battle of CPE Music Group, Christa Giammattei of CGS and Samantha Potter of Allen & Heath and ProSound Web.

“An important event like this requires a lot of partners,” Johnson said. “We are excited to have received a Community Partnership Initiative grant from the Kernodle Center, which allows us to work with students in the Alamance-Burlington and Guilford County schools. We also have corporate sponsors, such as Audio & Light in Greensboro and Sennheiser, who help provide resources for our presenters.”

Registration for the conference is now open at . Links are also provided for all social media contacts. If you have questions, feel free to email LWIA@elon.edu.

Some of the technical training topics include Audio Mastering (with Anna Frick), Music Mixing (with Marcella Araica), Live Sound (with Liz May) and Songwriting Skills (with Judy Stakee). Sessions related to working during a pandemic include Concert Production in Our New Reality (with Tess Ocaña), Job Loss and Search (with Michel Holbrook) and Remote Music Supervision (with Aurelia Belfield).

The conference will also address issues of diversity, equity and inclusion. There will be a presentation on Immersive Audio and Women (with Leslie Gaston-Bird) and a panel discussion, led by Aurelia Belfield and including Leslis Mona-Mathus, of ABC News Marketing & Creative.

Other offerings include a tour of the recording studios at Appalachian State University, a panel of Elon Alumni and a Friday evening streamed concert featuring several performers.

For more information, registration or to purchase swag, go to .

She is the author of numerous publications about the acoustics and psychoacoustics of immersive audio and auditory displays, and is the co-editor of the book titled “Immersive Sound: The Art and Science of Binaural and Multi-Channel Audio”. Agnieszka is the Past-President of the Audio Engineering Society (AES), an AES Fellow, and is the faculty sponsor of the Society for Women in TeCHnology (SWiTCH) at NYU.

Roginska will speak at the Opening Ceremony of the conference on Friday, Feb. 26. For more information about the conference and to register, go to .

“We hope that by being virtual, we can allow many more people to attend” says Fred Johnson, faculty sponsor of the conference. “Our presenters are all industry professionals who look forward to connecting with students.”

Once again, sessions will be offered in the areas of Live Sound, Mastering, Music Business and Recording, but there will also be topics that confront the reality of the pandemic and its effect on the music industry. With the theme of “Growth Through Adversity,” discussions of job loss, job searching and new strategies for concert production will take place. The final panel discussion, which has always focused on discrimination and allyship, will be centered around Diversity, Equity and Inclusion this year.

The conference is also pleased to welcome two new presenters:

• Judy Stakee, based in Los Angeles, has over 30 years of experience as a music industry
  executive. She is responsible for developing and signing many of today’s most acclaimed artists, including Grammy-award winner Sheryl Crow, Katy Perry, Gavin DeGraw and Joy Williams. She will give a session on being your best as a songwriter and will do some song critiques.
• Leslie Gaston-Bird works as a freelance re-recording mixer and sound editor in the UK. She is also the author of the book, “Women In Audio,” a voting member of the Recording Academy and a past governor of the Audio Engineering Society. She will be presenting from her research in Immersive Audio.

Registration is now open on the conference website, . Join us in this annual celebration of the achievements by music industry leaders, who just happen to be women!

Local companies providing sponsorship funds include Audio & Light, an audio-visual equipment supplier in Greensboro, and Dark Pine Studios, located in Graham. These gifts all help to make sure that the conference can provide a quality experience, through the workshops, panels and interaction with the presenters.

Other companies are providing presenter support, such as Trailblazer Studios, or equipment and prizes, such as PreSonus and Sonarworks. All of these corporate partners show their belief in the conference and their commitment to providing student access to successful members of the audio industry.

“The engagement from these companies is essential to the success of the conference, and we are grateful and excited to have them supporting us” says Fred Johnson, faculty advisor. “To have the opportunity at Elon to spotlight the impact of women in the audio field and have students meet and learn from these presenters is amazing!”

The Leading Women In Audio Conference will take place on Feb. 28-29, 2020. For more information and to register, go to .

The “Leading Women In Audio” conference returns to campus, bringing presenters from across the music industry. Attendees can engage in sessions on recording, sound for video, business, live sound, entrepreneurship and post-production, as well as panel discussions on “Career Paths” and “Stereotypes and Allyship”.

Appearing at the conference will be:

• Marcella Araica, from Dream Asylum Studio, Miami, Florida
• Karen Kane, Recording Engineer and faculty member, UNC-Wilmington
• Michel Holbrook, Audio Engineer, Trailblazer Studios, Raleigh
• Liz May, Owner of SoundLizzard Productions, Winston-Salem
• Tess Mangum Ocaña, Founder of Sonic Pie Productions, Durham
• Aurelia Belfield, Music Supervisor, Trailblazer Studios, Raleigh
• Anna Frick, Sr. Mastering Engineer, Airshow Mastering, Boulder, Colorado

New to the conference this year is a high school student focus on Friday morning, as well as a “track-the-tracks” thread, following songs as they are recorded in the studio, mixed and then mastered. There will be exhibits and demonstrations by vendors and community organizations and time to meet with local studio owners and companies about internships and employment.

Registration is already open, and students from Appalachian State, Clemson,  Western Carolina, Berklee College of Music and several high schools are already planning to attend.

The event is supported by a grant from the Fund For Excellence of Elon College, the College of Arts & Sciences, a gift from Chuck and Lisa Surack of Sweetwater Music and Sound, Audio & Light of Greensboro and Dark Pines Studios, Graham.

For more information and to register, go to .

The conference brings presenters from across the music industry to lead Friday sessions on recording, post-production, business, live sound, entrepreneurship and broadcast sound. In addition, panel discussions on Saturday will tackle topics such as “Career Paths”, “Professionalism”, “Networking & Mentoring” and “Stereotypes and Allyship”.

Appearing at the conference will be:

• Marcella Araica, from Dream Asylum Studio, Miami, FL
• Karen Kane, recording engineer and faculty member, UNC-Wilmington
• Michel Holbrook, audio engineer, Trailblazer Studios, Raleigh
• Liz May, owner of SoundLizzard Productions, Winston-Salem
• Tess Mangum Ocaña, founder of Sonic Pie Productions, Durham
• Aurelia Belfield, music supervision, Trailblazer Studios, Raleigh

There will be vendor exhibits by AEA Ribbonmics and Hear Technologies, and a recording workshop by Warm Audio, featuring Nashville mix engineer/producer, Joe Carrell. Attendees will also have time to meet with local studio owners, professionals and companies about internships and employment.

The event is supported by a grant from the Fund For Excellence of Elon College, the College of Arts & Sciences, and a gift from Chuck and Lisa Surack of Sweetwater Music and Sound. For more information, go to .

With his first design project being Electric Lady Studios for Jimi Hendrix, Storyk has been a leading designer of broadcast, performance and recording spaces. His credits include Jazz at Lincoln Center, ESPN, Berklee College of Music and private studios for Bruce Springsteen, JayZ, Alicia Keyes, Timbaland and Aerosmith. WSDG has been responsible for designing more than 3,000 media and content creation facilities around the world.

“Having someone of his stature spend time with our students is amazing”, said Fred Johnson, MPRA faculty member. “It shows how our program is growing in recognition, and it gives our students a chance to interact with an industry leader.”

Storyk will speak on changes in the business models and studio designs over the last 10 years. The shift from large, “all-at-once” recording sessions to smaller, file-based, shared mixing processes has led to an evolution of powerful, yet flexible, content creation environments. These rooms still depend on the designer’s ability to maximize the acoustic potential and support the skills of the audio professional.

This presentation is the inaugural session of the “Music Industry Visiting Professional Series”, created to connect MPRA students and the Elon community to leaders from the music world. The series is supported by a historic $1 million anonymous gift to the music production and recording arts program that is also providing significant equipment and studio upgrades. 

Elon AES Student Chapter members Noah Portnoy, Joshua Scovern and Jacob Keisler traveled to the convention, along with Rick Earl, technical director for cultural and special programs, and Fred Johnson, faculty member in music production and recording arts.

With the theme of “Maximum Audio”, the convention featured technical paper presentations, workshops and tutorial sessions, and topic tracks such as game audio and virtual reality, broadcast, sound reinforcement, cinema sound, networked audio and education. People from throughout the audio industry were able to hear experts, mingle and network with others in their field.

A separate student track offered mentoring sessions, a Career & Education Fair, poster presentations, recording competitions and opportunities for students from many schools to interact with their peers. Keisler was able to present one of his live recordings for critique by a panel of professionals from the United States and the UK, receiving the most positive comments of the session’s participants.

Contacts were also made to bring more resources to Elon, in the way of guest speaker presentations and internship openings for students.

Founded in 1948, the AES is the only professional organization devoted exclusively to audio technology, and its mission is to promote the science and practice of audio, by bringing leading people and ideas together. There are more than 13,000 members affiliated with more than 75 professional sections and more than 95 student sections around the world, including one here at Elon. 

Elon’s music production and recording arts program was recently ranked #8 in the country by College Magazine, which surveyed music recording technology and audio design programs around the country. 

Elon’s ranking put them among the top 10 schools for music recording technology and audio design, with College Magazine pointing out that Elon “offers students plenty of opportunities to practice their engineering, producing and songwriting with different performing groups on campus.”

Celegrating its 10th anniversary, the MPRA program at Elon was noted for the high degree of collaboration on campus. “Elon’s Music Production and Recording Arts (MRPA) program is all about collaboration,” Katie Heit ’19 told the magazine. “Just over the past year and a half I have met some of the most creative people I’ve ever encountered and they have been more than happy to help in my personal craft. As a student at Elon I am constantly working with people who push my creative boundaries and help me become a better artist all together.”

The Berklee College of Music in Boston grabbed the top ranking in the list, which also included schools such as Indiana University, the University of Miami, Middle Tennessee State University and Belmont University. 

View the entire list .