Today, the AES at IU chapter welcomed engineer Rick Jacobsohn to speak to a small group of students about his career path in audio. Rick works primarily as the live broadcast recording engineer for both the Baltimore Symphony, and the Philadelphia Symphony. He is in town as the sound designer for the IU Opera Theater's production of The (R)Evolution of Steve Jobs opening next weekend at the Musical Arts Center. Rick has an interesting career path, starting out as a classical violinist pursuing his undergraduate degree at Ithaca College in New York, then turning his interests to classical music recording. Since receiving his master's degree in sound recording from McGill University, Rick has worked as a classical recording engineer, live sound engineer for both classical and commercial music, as well as worked as a recording and mixing engineer on numerous live TV broadcasts for PBS, NPR, Showtime, and more.
Apart from sharing his career journey, he gave students some wise words of wisdom. He stressed how important it is to take internships and really learn the ins and outs about the business and politics associated within the music business from industry professionals. Learning as much as possible from professional mentors will help you get work for yourself, and prevent yourself from never being called again for work. A final tip from Rick was to take as much time in the studio as you can while in school, and really experiment with all the tools available, and take detailed notes of your experimentation.
The Audio Engineering Society at Indiana University would like to thank Rick Jacobsohn for taking the time out of his busy week here to speak to our students and give some great advice to the next generation of engineers!
