Audio Innovator In Residence

Over the past six weeks, as part of the Innovator In Residence series with the Toronto Public Library, I had the opportunity to meet many people while sharing my knowledge of the audio and music world.

The lectures included topics covering the audio, music and recording industries as well as various arts funding models. I was also fortunate to be able to include at one lecture, guest speaker Byron Wong, who’s industry knowledge is vast and furious.

The 8 workshops were conceived as audio production primers from start to finish and covered various topics including studio acoustics, mixing, location recording, audio for film, music videos, ATSC/A85 Broadcast Standards and Mastering for iTunes.

While I found the lectures and workshops rewarding to put together, the individual sessions were equally inspiring. Among the participants I mentored singer/songwriters, actors, film makers, aspiring audio engineers, hip hop artists, film composers, gospel musicians and entrepreneurs. They all had a story and their love of all things music and sound made for an entertaining month and a half. Here is one example of a film composition project that was brought to one of my individual sessions by musician/composer Esther Jeon.

Tear Seed / 이효린 from there movement on Vimeo.

Here is a selection from talented workshop participant Grace Peci who was gracious enought to let me post her song here.

I also had the opportunity to conduct workshops at PARC community centre in Parkdale as part of the TPL outreach program. A core group of dedicated members came together over three weeks to participate in audio workshops covering home studio building, mixing, mastering, and delivery formats. In conjunction with member input, I also began development of a comprehensive document covering the redevelopment of their in-house recording studio.

The Audio Innovator in Residence program is part of a larger series involving innovators from many different areas. It is my belief that this kind of programming, through the Toronto Public Library, is what makes cities vibrant, relevant and livable. It was for these reasons I was initially interested in the position and, after having interacted with the participants, I can confidently say they felt the same way.

I wish to thank the staff, in particular Ted Belke, at the Fort York Digital Innovation Hub for their support. And to Diana Lee for the opportunity and her enthusiastic and tireless commitment to Toronto’s Public Library System.