SoundGirls Podcast

SoundGirls Living History Project - Dr. Rebecca Mercuri

The SoundGirls Living History project is a collection of interviews with audio industry veterans. The project seeks to highlight the careers and achievements of women and underrepresented groups in audio. Interviews are conducted by SoundGirls members, with guidance from experienced interviewers in the audio industry.

Interviews will be available publicly in our Living History Project and for educational use and research and through our social media, YouTube channel, and The SoundGirls Podcast.

The oral history interviews are typically unedited and will be archived in their original form.

Dr. Rebecca Mercuri's life and career have been an eclectic mix of music and technology, with Bachelor's degrees in Classical Guitar (University of the Arts), and Computer Science (Penn State), Masters degrees in Science (Drexel) and Engineering (UPenn), and a Ph.D. in Computer and Information Systems (UPenn). She also holds honorary alumna status from Harvard in recognition of her fellowship year at Radcliffe Institute. In the 1980s, following her undergraduate education, she became an Associate Member of Technical Staff at RCA's David Sarnoff Research Center. Projects there included the development of music software for a personal computer project and the design of the first computer-controlled interactive software and hardware for the RCA VideoDisc player. While in graduate school, during the 1990s, Rebecca was employed at AT&T Bell Laboratories where she pioneered the integration of a holophonic audio system into a collaborative and interactive virtual videoconferencing system. Later, at the University of Pennsylvania, her dissertation, "Electronic Vote Tabulation: Checks & Balances" received immediate attention, as it had been defended 11 days before the 2000 Bush v. Gore election. Dr. Mercuri continues to provide expert testimony on election controversies, and her recommendations about better ways to ensure accuracy, integrity, and believability in election results have been sought and adopted internationally. Notable Software, Inc., the company Rebecca founded (in 1985) to develop and market educational and music-related software under the Apple Certified Developer Program, now (since 2005) provides a wide range of digital investigative and expert witness services for civil and criminal matters. M.O.R.E project below the video: http://n2re.org/m-o-r-e-project

Interview By: Christina Milinusic an audio professional who has provided live sound reinforcement since founding her company Unity Sound in 2005. She is the current chapter head for SoundGirls Alberta and has experience working as an electronics technician, technical director, and recordist.

Full episode - picking up where we left off here: https://youtu.be/VAOEL-VR6yc?t=1863

https://soundgirls.org/soundgirls-living-history-project/

Chrissy Sara CTS-I, DSCE, DCME: Senior Sales Support Engineer & AV Educator

Keeping whole AV solution goals in mind, Chrissy thrives not just in digital signage but also in presentation training of Pro AV technology. From her start in Broadcast TV in '09 to her current home in Pro AV, Chrissy has spent her 12-year career gaining skills in technical training design, video presentation, video signal transport, IoT connectivity, AV system control, video system commissioning, and technical support.

Chrissy Sara’s latest work focuses on supporting Sony Pro Electronics' B2B division with a concentration in IoT digital signage solutions, Hybrid presentation solutions, internal technical education, and fostering Central US consultant relationships. 

Chrissy has achieved a well-rounded understanding of the five key aspects of the AV industry (audio, video, control, networking, and project management) through her experience teaching AVIXA’s CTS and CTS-I ANSI certified certification programs. Sara achieved the Educator of the Year award in 2021 from AVIXA's InfoComm 2021 in Orlando, FL.

Check out our IG @SoundGirlsPod for some furry friend photos! 

100th Episode

This is our 100th episode, and to celebrate we have compiled a series of clips from past interviews that focus on one topic: Advice. 

Clips from the following episodes:

Wesley Devore https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-f6gft-11e4101

Barbara Adams https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-w4gum-11da88f

Megan Clement https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-cf3mc-11b211c

Chelsea Body https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-r6bg7-119e745

Sherry Klein https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-dy4v9-118a7b7

Jeanne Montalvo https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-qw4dj-117ff03

Shalini Agarwal https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-4a4bk-11769dc

Joanna Fang https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-694eu-115c492

Juno Black https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-bpyjt-10d32a6

 

Wesley DeVore: Marketing Manager, Musician, and Author

Wesley DeVore is a 25-year music industry veteran who got her start as a studio assistant for Nine Inch Nails at Nothing Studios in New Orleans. She has worked as an audio engineer, music producer, film composer, and contractor, wiring several professional studios including Central Command in North Hollywood. For the last 15 years, DeVore has worked for PreSonus and is currently the Marketing Manager for the popular audio brand. She is also the author of the Clementine Toledano Mysteries. 

https://www.wedevore.com

Barbara Adams: audio engineer, educator, and Philadelphia SoundGirls Chapter Head

Barbara Adams is an audio engineer and educator with over twenty-five years of experience in the music industry. She specializes in live sound and production management. Her strong and varied experience also includes recording engineer, stage management, and artist management.

Barbara is a Lecturer Professor at Rowan University teaching Sound Reinforcement and Audio Recording in their Music Industry Program. She also is the booking manager for Rowan Music Group, the program’s record label, and artist management services. By night she is busy as an engineer and production manager working as a freelance Engineer/System Tech for several production companies and regional bands touring the NorthEast and Mid-Atlantic states. As the Soundgirls Philadelphia chapter president, she is always looking for ways to help mentor and guide new engineers in the field of live sound and bring together the Philadelphia community of soundgirls. And as if this wasn’t enough, she is the mom to a very busy teenage son.

Patrice Scanlon: classically trained musician, composer, sound designer, electronic musician, & audio engineer

Patrice Scanlon is a classically trained musician, composer, sound designer, electronic musician, and audio engineer, working in the San Francisco Bay Area and Central Florida. She has 18 years of experience teaching and performing electronic/computer music, audio engineering, and interactive multimedia composition. Patrice also develops live audio processing and interactive software with Max, which has become her instrument for solo and collaborative performances.

https://www.patricescanlon.com

Jayshree Mallaya: International Women’s Day Special Episode featuring Over the Walls Together

Jayshree Mallaya is a South African born in the beautiful seaside city of Durban. She is an award-winning businesswoman and community worker as well as a best-selling co-author of her book, Palm Reading & Positive Thinking (with her sister Mellissa Mallaya Pandya.) Jayshree also has a blog entitled  "My Blessings In Life”. Since 2017 Jayshree has been the co-founder of a nonprofit organization Over The Walls Together. Where They create music to trigger communication for social good.

#wearyourcrown

www.overthewallstogether.org

Over The Walls Together Foundation brings you an inspiring beat to urge people to Join Hands All Around The World and join us in our mission to end Violence against women and girls. Our goals are to encourage and initiate change and positive communication between men, women, and children to “Break The Silence” and Support, Heal & Empower each other.

Ai-Ling Lee: Academy Award-Nominated sound editor & mixer

Ai-Ling Lee was born in Singapore where she studied music audio engineering. After two years of mixing and editing commercials and music, she moved to Los Angeles in
1998 to pursue a career in sound design for feature films. Since then she has worked as a sound designer, re-recording mixer, and sound supervisor on a variety of films including JoJo Rabbit, La La Land, First Man, Deadpool, Wild, Maze Runner, and Buena Vista Social Club. Ai-Ling has had the opportunity to work with directors Damien Chazelle, Taika Waititi, Jean-Marc Vallée, Noah Hawley, Wes Ball, Cameron Crowe, Gus Van Sant, and Sam Raimi, to name a few. She has been nominated for four Academy Awards (editing and mixing), two BAFTA, nine MPSE awards, and won a CAS award for Best Sound Mixing.

 

Megan Clement: UK-Based Freelance Sound Engineer

After experiencing her exciting first gig as a young teenager, Megan Clement has been inclined to pursue a career in the live music industry. She found her calling as a freelance Sound Engineer. Based in the UK, she has been inspired by the idea of touring and traveling to different parts of the world, with the aim to visit every continent. And what better way to do this than with great music and crew. The majority of her work is for audio production companies with my most recent role as the Monitor Tech for Cliff Richard. She is a passionate Mons Tech and enjoys problem-solving incorporated with RF and stage patch. But she also enjoys the physical demand of positions such as PA tech. The most exciting part of the job for her will always be that fantastic feeling you get whilst mixing extraordinary musicians, for reactive audiences in great venues. She is looking forward to further expanding her experience and knowledge in live audio once touring fully returns.

Kim Warnick: Executive Director of Calling All Crows #HereForTheMusic

Kim Warnick has served as the Executive Director of Calling All Crows since 2019 and was a 2021 She Rocks Award recipient for her sexual violence prevention work in the music industry through the #HereForTheMusic campaign. With more than a decade of sexual violence prevention and response experience and 8 years in the music industry, she is uniquely situated to design and lead this work. She has opted to get off the road and settle into Long Beach, CA, after spending most of her life in NH and Boston. She holds a BA in Sociology from Harvard University, where her studies focused on social movements, organizational culture, and conflict and peacebuilding, including an intensive study in Rwanda.