Incoming AES Prez Looks to Future
ProSound News
By Christopher Walsh
November 2008
Incoming AES President
Jim Anderson is an internationally recognized recording engineer and producer of acoustic music for the recording, radio, television and film industries, as well as an audio educator. He is the recipient of numerous awards and nominations in the recording industry: his recordings have received nine Grammy awards and 23 nominations; his radio recordings have received two George Foster Peabody Awards, and he has had two Emmy nominations for television programs.
A graduate of the Duquesne University School of Music in Pittsburgh, Anderson has studied audio engineering at the Eastman School of Music and Sender Freies Berlin. During the 1970s, Anderson was employed by National Public Radio, where he engineered and produced many awardwinning classical, jazz, documentary and news programs. Since 1980, he has had a career as an independent audio engineer and producer, living in New York City. He has been a frequent lecturer and masterclass guest faculty member at leading international institutes, including the Banff Centre, Berklee School of Music, University of Georgia, Universite de Kunst in Berlin, University of Luleå in Sweden, McGill University, New School University, the New England Institute of Art, University of Massachusetts-Lowell and Penn State University. He has served as vice president for the eastern region of the Audio Engineering Society, chaired the AES New York Section, was chair of the past two New York AES conventions, and is a Fellow of the Society. Since 2003, he has been on the faculty of the Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music in the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University and in 2004 was appointed chair of the department.
Pro Sound News: What are your goals for the coming year?
Jim Anderson: These are interesting times, as the Chinese like to say. That makes the challenge all that more interesting, shall we say. Goals for me are to strengthen membership, and to involve and engage students at all levels. All of us are students, actually: There’s so much that all of us can learn, and learn from each other. That’s the beauty of the Convention— the gathering of so many professionals, so many people that are on the way up—that’s the beauty of the gathering that happens every fall.
PSN: Do you have specific initiatives in mind to strengthen and broaden the community?
JA: We have a number of ideas. We’re looking toward some potential high school programs so students are aware of the AES before they go to their colleges. Also, there are some ongoing education initiatives that I participate in, which I would like to see adapted to other areas, such as the Boston area student summit that goes on every fall (also the one that occurs in the Midwest with [AES education committee member/Webster University professor] Gary Gottlieb). Those are really exciting ventures. We are also pursuing some new conference topics such as electrical engineering, which I know is going to be exciting. In the
spring we have an automotive audio conference coming up. We’re looking at those topics to broaden the breadth and the depth of the Society.
PSN: We all know what’s been going on in the pre-recorded music sector. Are there other areas that are especially challenging at this time?
JA: AES represents quality. I believe we should always be maintaining a vigil for quality. People want music, [and] portability in music. We’ve seen this in everything from transistor radios to cassettes and 8-tracks, and now MP3s. But there’s always something about listening to music, sitting back and listening to music, that I think people need to get back into. I’m always looking at it from a recording standpoint. Frankly, if you start out with a better, higher-quality master, you’re going to get a higher-quality product all the way down the line. If you only start with a low-resolution file, it’s not going to get any better. That’s the kind of education that we owe to ourselves and our membership, to show the people coming up that this really is a very important part of music, their legacy and their inheritance, too. If you think of the breadth of the AES, there’s more live music than ever before. The record business is a little bit in trouble, but the music business is actually doing pretty well. Quality in live sound is very important, too. We need to focus on quality in all aspects of audio recording and live performance.
PSN: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
JA: When I think about the population of the Society in general, when we talk about the importance of the AES and the AES Convention, everyone says, “Are you going to the show, are you going to San Francisco?” It’s only AES and the Convention; they’re not talking about NAMM or other conventions, other societies. That, to me, shows the importance of the gathering and the whole event. That, I think, is the strength of the convention, and the society. Everyone contributes, everyone puts their best foot forward, and everyone is working toward a common good.
To view the ProSound News article by Christopher Walsh online, click here.
