The Audio Engineering Society (AES) has revealed that the award-winning and highly renowned recording engineer and producer Leslie Ann Jones of Skywalker Sound will deliver the Heyser Memorial Lecture at its upcoming New York Convention, taking place 18-21 October at the Jacob Javits Center.

First established in 1999 by the AES Technical Council and the Board of Governors in conjunction with the Richard Heyser Scholarship fund, the Heyser Lectures, featured at each AES Convention as part of the special events schedule, bring prominent individuals in audio engineering and related fields to speak on a relevant topic of choice, and is open to all convention attendees.

Leslie Ann Jones has been a recording and mixing engineer for over 35 years. Starting her career at ABC Recording Studios in LA in 1975, she moved to Northern California in 1978 to accept a staff position at the legendary Automatt Recording Studios. There she worked with such artists as Herbie Hancock and Carlos Santana, and started her film score mixing career with Apocalypse Now.

From 1987 to 1997 she was a staff engineer at Capitol Studios, located in the historic Capitol Records Tower in Hollywood, where she recorded many successful musical projects as well as the scores for several feature films and television shows. In February 1997 she returned to Northern California to accept a position as director of music recording and scoring with Skywalker Sound, where she continues her engineering career recording and mixing music for records, films, video games, television, and commercials, and has further added record producer to her list of credits.

Jones has received four Grammy Awards and has been nominated multiple times in categories including Best Engineered Recording, Non-Classical; and Best Surround Sound Album. Additionally, she is a past chair of The Recording Academy’s Board of Trustees, serves on the Advisory Boards of the Institute for Musical Arts, Ex’pression College for Digital Arts, G.A.N.G. (Game Audio Network Guild) and is an artistic advisor to the new Technology and Applied Composition degree program at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

The Heyser Memorial lecture will take place on the opening evening of the convention – 18 October, from 6pm to 7.30pm. Jones will also be featured during the 143rd International AES Convention in the special event presentation Bearing Witness: The Music of Star Wars – Archiving Art and Technology, on day two.

“Almost any superlatives applied to Jones and her decades of work would be an understatement,” said Francis Rumsey, AES technical council chair. “Her lecture, fittingly titled ‘Paying Attention,’ promises to take attendees on a fascinating, educational and inspirational retrospective of the sessions leading to her vast discography and filmography, including those moments when focusing on the right detail has both sustained and enriched her storied career.”

AES New York 2017 will be co-located with the NAB Show New York 2017. Registration for AES New York will give attendees access to the NAB Show New York exhibition floor and the content in the NAB Show New York’s Core Package.

AMI sat down for a chat with Jones at the start of 2016 following her fourth Grammy win. You can read her interview, in which she discusses her impressive 40-year career, here.

http://www.aes.org/events/143/