147th Convention Committee

The AES would like to thank all of the committee members that volunteer their time to put on our technical program!

Agnieszka Roginska (Co-Chair)
Agnieszka Roginska is Music Associate Professor of Music Technology at New York University. Her research focuses on the analysis, simulation and applications of immersive and 3D audio. She is an AES Fellow and President-Elect of AES.

 

Valerie Tyler (Co-Chair)
Valerie Tyler is Secretary of the AES, and has served on sixteen convention/academy committees. She studied music at UC Santa Cruz, the music/recording industry at San Francisco State University, and electronic music, digital audio, digital video, web design, and graphic design at College of San Mateo. She currently holds the position of Webmaster at College of San Mateo. She previously worked as an audio editor and live sound engineer.

 

Jonathan Wyner (Co-Chair)
Jonathan Wyner is best known as a mastering engineer and educator. Making records and teaching since 1983, he is a professor of Music Production and Engineering at Berklee College, Education Director for iZotope and Chief Engineer at M Works Studios. Author of a book and online course about audio mastering, he is excited by the creative possibilities that the marriage of music making and new technology brings us.

 

Areti Andreopoulou (Papers Co-Chair)
Areti Andreopoulou is an Assistant Professor in Music Technology at the Department of Music Studies of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (UoA), Greece. She has a background in musicology from UoA and Master's and PhD degrees in Music Technology from New York University. Her fields of interest include spatial audio, immersive environments, auditory displays, and acoustics.

 

Alexandra Bartles (Electronic Dance Music Co-Chair)
Alex Bartles is a qualified Audiologist, with over 15 years experience in the field of audiology, she specialises in Tinnitus retraining for artists and producers in the music industry. Alex is Owner of Altar Recording Studios and regularly holds seminars and workshops on hearing protection. She also runs Dance Music Production, the industry leading website for electronic dance music training with Rick Snoman.

 

David Bialik (Broadcast and Streaming Chair)
David Bialik is currently the Director of Stream Operations for CBS Radio and has been a Broadcast Engineer since 1982. He has organized and chaired the Broadcast and Streaming track in the USA conventions since its inception.*

 

Michael Bierylo (Electronic Instrument Design & Applications)
Michael Bierylo is an electronic musician, guitarist, composer, and sound designer. He has been a faculty member at Berklee College of Music since 1995 and is currently Chair of the Electronic Production and Design Department where he led the development of Berklee’s Electronic Digital Instrument Program, the Electronic Performance Minor and the Creative Coding Minor. Major projects include artist residencies with Suzanne Ciani, Nona Hendryx, Hank Shocklee, Richard Devine, and Robert Rich He is also active in Berklee Online, Berklee’s online school, where he authors and teaches music technology courses. Bierylo has performed throughout the U.S. as a member of Birdsongs of the Mesozoic. His compositions are featured on the group's albums Dancing On A'A, Petrophonics, The Iridium Controversy, and Extreme Spirituals, all on Cuneiform Records. As a solo electronic artist, Bierylo has performed with laptop computer and modular synthesizers in the US, Berlin, Shanghai, and Krakow including concerts with Grammy-nominated electronic musician BT in 2012 and Terrance Blanchard in 2015. His composition “Koralate" appeared on The Hundred Dollar Guitar Project CD. Recent commercial projects include production work on the films Granito, the Reckoning, and Traces of the Trade, all featured at the Sundance Film Festival. Bierylo holds a B.M. from Berklee College of Music, majoring in Guitar Performance with additional studies in audio production and jazz composition.

 

Braxton Boren (Papers Co-Chair)
Braxton Boren received his PhD in Music Technology at NYU as part of the Spatial Audio Research Group. He is an assistant professor in the Audio Technology program at American University, specializing in applications of science and technology to music and the humanities.

 

Julia Caruso (Facilities Advisor)
Julia Caruso is the studio manager in the Music Technology program at NYU Steinhardt. Formerly, she was a broadcast engineer at CBS Radio and has extensive experience with studio and live sound engineering.

 

Alex Case (Acoustics & Psychoacoustics Chair)
Alex U. Case – Associate Professor, Sound Recording Technology, University of Massachusetts Lowell – focuses his research on aesthetics, perception, signal processing, history, electro-acoustics and room acoustics for the creation and enjoyment of sound recordings.

 

Justin Chervony (Student Events Chair)
Justin Chervony is the current SDA Chair for North and Latin America and a recent graduate of McGill University. His focuses are improving student experience within AES and at conventions by increasing opportunity, develop rewarding and practical competitions, and host beneficial events for students about to enter the workforce. His background is in studio recording, education, and performance.

 

Henry Cohen (Sound Reinforcement Chair)

 

Owen Curtin (Audio Builders Workshop Chair)

 

Paul Gallo (Industry Advisor)

 

Leslie Gaston-Bird (Diversity & Inclusion Advisor)
Leslie Gaston-Bird (AMPS, M.P.S.E.) is author of the upcoming book "Women in Audio", part of the AES Presents series and published by Focal Press (Routledge). She is a voting member of the Recording Academy. Currently, she is a freelance re-recording mixer and sound editor. Prior to that, she was a tenured Associate Professor of Recording Arts at the University of Colorado Denver (2005-2018) where she served as Chair of the Department of Music and Entertainment Industry Studies for two years.

 

Gary Gottlieb (Historical Chair)
Co-Chair of the AES Historical Committee and the Conference Policy Committee and Vice President of the Eastern Region, US and Canada, Engineer, Author, Educator and Guest Speaker Gary Gottlieb refers to himself as a music generalist. A professional musician since age 13, he worked in radio on and off for 25 years, and was a music critic for 9 years. As a recording engineer, live recordist and music producer in New York, Gottlieb's long and distinguished career includes work with numerous Grammy Award winners and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees in a variety of venues. His credits as a sound designer include off-off-Broadway productions, along with community and college theater productions throughout New England. Along with his history as a music critic and entertainment writer for the Deerfield Valley News in West Dover, Vermont, and a disc jockey for WEQX, a major modern rock station in Manchester, Vermont, Gottlieb owned and operated a mobile DJ service and was a Venue Director for numerous X Games and Winter X Games for ESPN. In 2002 he accepted a position as Professor of Audio Production at Webster University in St. Louis, where he created the Department of Audio Aesthetics & Technology and subsequently served as the inaugural Chair of the Department. In 2007 Thomson Publishing released Gottlieb’s "Shaping Sound in the Studio and Beyond", the definitive introductory textbook in audio. In 2008 Thomson/Cengage published his second book, "Recording On The Go". Gottlieb's publication, "How Does it Sound Now?" was released in 2009 and won the ARSC award for Excellence in Historic Research. AES awarded Gottlieb a Citation in 2011 for Service to the audio community. Relocating to Washington DC in 2016, Gottlieb has remained in the audio education community, and was instrumental in the revitalization of the DC AES section. Traveling extensively for guest speaking engagements, Gottlieb has dedicated himself to educating youth about audio through the St. Louis Audio Project.

 

Jim Kaiser (Recording and Production Chair)
JIM KAISER is an audio engineer and educator, and instructor of Audio Engineering Technology at Belmont University in Nashville. His experience includes location and studio recording, surround production, audio restoration and mastering, and technical design of music production facilities. Jim chairs the Technical Committee on Recording Technology and Practices and co-chairs the Recording Academy Producers & Engineers Wing Deliverables Committee.

 

John Krivit (Special Events Co-Chair)
John Krivit is a Past President of the AES. He was the Chair of the AES Education Committee from 2010 to 2015 where he built a vibrant global community of educators, students and institutions. John serves on the faculties of Emerson College and Bridgewater State University. His work as an educator has been defined by an unrelenting passion for connecting his students to gainful and rewarding careers in all facets of the audio industry. He is the recipient of the Inabeth Miller Award for excellence in teaching and the Norm Prescott Award for outstanding faculty member. John led the 2018 AES Conference on Audio Archiving, Preservation & Restoration at the US Library of Congress as its chair and also chaired the 2018 AES High School Audio Educators Conference. Currently, he is Director of Education at Professional Audio Design of Hanover, Massachusetts and does consulting with other manufacturers of audio technology. John chronicles the events and opportunities available to audio students of all ages through his popular "Hey Audio Student" Facebook group. He continues to speak at audio events around the world.

 

Matthew Kulewicz (Volunteers Chair)
Matthew Kulewicz is a sound engineer/designer and musician whose work focuses on broadcast sound for tv/film as well as music recording and production. Having received his Master’s Degree for Music Technology at NYU, he is an adjunct professor, department administrator and academic advisor for the Music Technology program. Currently he is working as the Sound Supervisor/Sound Mixer for Showtime's 'Our Cartoon President'.

 

Bob Lee (Networked Audio Chair )

 

Scott Leslie (Product Development Chair)
Scott Leslie focuses on improving and redefining product development for the pro audio industry. His areas of specialty include company strategy, product management, product development process, engineering leadership, and managing product development as a financial portfolio. Prior to starting his consulting firm PD Squared, Scott Leslie was VP of Engineering at JBL Pro and CEO at Renkus-Heinz.

 

Jessica Livingston (Tech Tours Chair)

 

Michael MacDonald (Industry Advisor)

 

Steve Martz (VR and Game Audio Co-Chair)

 

Michael Hagen (Facilities Co-Chair)
Michael Hagen is a Music Technician currently working for the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music. He has worked in recording studios, theaters, Internet2 performances, and electronics programs. In addition, he has taught workshops on soldering, cable management and studio planning, Audio-over-IP, troubleshooting, and electronics at NYU, where he received a B.M in Music Technology.

 

Madgalena Piotrowska (Education Chair)
Magdalena Piotrowska is a mastering engineer and educator based in Poland. She has served the AES as Governor, Education Committee Vice Chair and being involved in convention committees as Workshops&Tutorials Co-Chair and Student and Career track in Europe and US. Recently she is Education Committee Chair. Her main scientific interests are music information retrieval, psychoacoustics, signal processing and connections between science and practical application in the field of audio technology.

 

Michael Romanowski (Recording & Production Co-Chai )

 

Lisa Roy (Special Events Co-Chair)

 

Rick Snoman (Electronic Dance Music Co-Chair)
Rick Snoman is an artist, producer and award winning author of the Dance Music Manual, the Amazon bestselling and industry recognised textbook that's on the reading list of many international institutions. With nearly 30 years specialising in electronic dance music production, he has remixed for many top-ten artists and released under various monikers including Phiadra, RED 5 and more recently, Aeon Soul. He is an iTunes certified mastering engineer, an EMTAS certified tutor and owner and producer at Altar Recording Studios. He is regularly requested to hold talks at universities worldwide and has held workshops and seminars for both students and tutors at locations such as South Bank University, Westminster University, British/Irish Institute of Modern Music and Manchester's School of Electronic Music. He is also founder of Dance Music Production. Started in 2004, it's the leading educational resources for electronic music producers.

 

Jessica Thompson (Archiving & Restoration Chair)
Jessica Thompson is a GRAMMY-nominated mastering and restoration engineer, audio preservation specialist, and educator. She has digitized, restored and revived historic recordings for collections ranging from the Erroll Garner Jazz Project to the record label Awesome Tapes From Africa.

 

Maggie Tobin (Facilities Co-Chair)
Maggie Tobin is a Master of Music candidate in New York University’s music technology program, where her research focuses on 3D mixing and object-based audio. Also an accomplished vocalist and vocal arranger, she previously earned a B.A. in Music from Florida State University and currently works as a Music Coordinator for SiriusXM.

 

John Whynot (Audio for Cinema Chair)
Multiple award winner John Whynot's first major feature-film score mixing credit was The Last of the Mohicans, which won the 1993 Academy Award for sound. He has since mixed and programmed dozens of feature film scores, including Austin Powers I and II, Ronin, Stigmata, The Breadwinner, The Addams Family A composer and songwriter, his original compositions have appeared in feature films, television movies, national advertising and video games. He has extensive experience in all musical idioms and styles. His Grammy- and Juno-award-winning career as a producer/engineer includes projects with Dave Matthews, Lucinda Williams, Blue Rodeo, Kathleen Edwards, Loreena McKennitt and Colin James A multi-instrumentalist, he has appeared on stage or television with Bruce Cockburn, The Band, Rick Danko, Garth Hudson, Doug Sahm, Amos Garrett, Kathleen Edwards, Carole Pope, Corey Hart, Blackie & the Rodeo Kings In his hometown of Toronto, where he was constantly seen on stage playing in literally dozens of bands (guitar, keyboards, saxophones), John frequently found himself in the producer’s chair in the studio. He was driven by a fascination with recording and an increasingly obvious talent for working the boards. His move to Los Angeles in 1989 spurred a shift into film scoring. Within a short time he was brought into a project with composer Trevor Jones, who immediately hired him to program synths and mix the score to The Last of the Mohicans. Being a mixer who can read scores and relate to musicians as a musician has kept him working in film music ever since. He has also mixed and/or programmed scores for George S. Clinton, Elia Cmiral, Andrew Gross, Jeff Danna, Mychael Danna, John Debney and others. In 2014, John accepted an offer to become an Associate Professor at Berklee College of Music in its vaunted Music Production and Engineering Department. He is now dividing his time between teaching and mixing in Boston and producing and mixing in Los Angeles. Recently, John has been mixing scores to the Netflix mini-series Alias Grace, 3BELOW and WIZARDS (the latter 2 created and produced by Guillermo Del Toro) and the feature film The Addams Family for Mychael Danna & Jeff Danna. After creating a new Minor in Audio Post Production at Berklee College of Music, he has authored a new course for Berklee Online in their Master’s Degree program in Music Production, and is writing a course for their Master’s program in Film Scoring on the topic of mixing music for film.

 

Fred Willard (Broadcast and Streaming Assistant Chair)
38 years in radio and television with an affinity for high fidelity compelling audio. BS Towson University, 15 years with Maryland Public Television (PBS), and another 15 with Univision Communications as Washington, DC Director of Technology. Early HDTV work with NASA Goddard Space Flight Center imaging and shuttle mission support. As a member of AES, SMPTE, and SBE, I support technology and innovation of the broadcast business and my local market with creative solutions.

 

Richard Wollrich (Treasurer)
Richard Wollrich has worked at all the major motion-picture studios in various capacities, including Chief of Projection Engineering at 20th Century Fox and as a Post Production Sound Mixer with Sony Pictures Entertainment. In his last position, he was responsible for authoring a number of 5.1-channel soundtracks in multiple languages destined for feature-film DVD and Blu-ray Disc release. Richard holds a BS degree in Business and has served as Treasurer for the AES Los Angeles section for the past twelve years, and was Treasurer for the 141st International Convention and 2016 International Conference.

 

Paul Womack (Hip-Hop and R&B Chair)
Having built a discography boasting names such as Wiz Khalifa, Donnie McClurkin, The Roots, Open Mike Eagle, Billy Woods, Milo, and many more, Paul ‘‘Willie Green’’ Womack has established himself as one of the top record makers in independent urban music. Residing in Brooklyn, New York, Womack is a graduate of Berklee College of Music’s MP&E program and is a freelance producer, engineer, and songwriter.

 

Staff & AES Leadership

Colleen Harper (Executive Director)

Mary Ellen Ilich (Convention Program)

Graham Kirk (Director of Sales & Marketing)

Glenn Lorbecki (Expo Theatre Coordinator)

Chris Plunkett (Director of Operations)

Corey Walthall (Marketing)

Frank Wells (Communications Director)