KMD Pro Speed Mentoring (Session 1)

EveAnna Manley is an Entrepreneur and owner of Manley Labs, America's most beloved champion of the vacuum tube for high end studio recording electronics as well as audiophile products. If you want to get into the geeky world of manufacturing, EveAnna might be able to share some of the insight she has acquired since 1989 building all this tube gear!

Sherry Klein is a Post Production Re-Recording Mixer for Television and Film. She is currently living in Los Angeles, Ca. working with Smart Post Sound. Some of her credits include Queen of the South, New Amsterdam, Deputy, Burn Notice, Arrested Development, Sons of Anarchy, and The Shield. Sherry started her career as a musician studying music composition at Webster College in St.Louis, Missouri, and then Jazz Arranging and Composition at Berklee College of Music in Boston. She says she first became “aware” of audio while having an end of semester composition recorded in the small 2-track studio at Berklee. “Sitting in that tiny control room and listening to my own arrangement being recorded was truly the first time I understood how manipulating sound could change everything.” That became the start of her journey from musician.... to record engineer... to post production

mixing.

Throughout her career Sherry has worked with an array of outstanding talent in both the music and film/television industry and still considers herself lucky to be working in such a creative and fulfilling profession. Sherry is on the Board of Directors for both the Entertainment Industry Professional Mentorship Alliance (EIMPA), the Cinema Audio Society (CAS) as well as being the chairperson of the CAS Student Recognition Award (SRA)

Zoe Thrall is a music industry professional with decades of experience in recording studio management.

Her career started at the famed Power Station Studios in New York City where she learned both sides of studio operations as both an assistant engineer and in studio management.  There she met producer/musician/actor Little Steven Van Zandt who hired her to work for him as an engineer and as a musician in his band Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul.

She later returned to Power Station to become their studio manager and eventually President of the company.  Her career continued on to become manager of Hit Factory Studios in New York City, overseeing 9 studios and 75 employees. In 2005 the Palms Casino Resort courted her to Las Vegas to build and operate the Studio at the Palms.  

Maureen Droney is the Sr. Managing Director for the Producers & Engineers Wing of the Recording Academy (GRAMMYs). A former recording engineer for artists including George Benson, Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, and Santana, among many others, she has a degree in Broadcast Communication Arts from California State University, San Francisco and has taught audio seminars for companies including ABC and CBS Television. She has also worked in both artist and studio management, was the longtime Los Angeles editor for Mix magazine, and has three published books. Her most recent, co-written with its subject, is Al Schmitt on the Record: The Magic Behind the Music, chronicling the life and career of the most awarded recording engineer in history.

Whitney Taber started in the music industry over a decade ago taking a job as the Executive Assistant to Rihanna's Creative Director. Shortly after that, she began working for one of Billboard's top 25 Recording studios in the world the Record Plant; working with the music industry's top artists such as WiIl I Am, Ariana Grande, Lil Nas X, Prince, Justin Bieber, Pharell, and Beyonce. Being the only woman in the building for 10+ years, she worked her way up the ladder from intern to Studio Manager and eventually became the Vice President.

During those 10+ years she stayed immersed in her own creativity along with her love for helping others, she explored other avenues of the entertainment industry. Becoming a TV and radio personality, she began producing and hosting with internet-based start-up Dash Radio and All Def Digital. Her passion and purpose collided in 2017 when she became the Los Angeles Chapter Leader for Girls Make Beats. With GMB, she helps to create opportunity, representation, and change in the male-dominated music industry while also being an example of great things women can achieve with the right leadership to ensure the next generation of women and music will be heard, represented, and respected.

Ms. Taber is the very proud LA Chapter leader along with Head of Podcast production for Girls Make Beats! With the 2020 launch of her creative agency, Pretty Funny Productions, she is jumping back into radio/ podcasting, content creation, Television, and Audio Production. Ms. Taber is now producing shows such as The Girls Make Beats Podcast, The Plug Radio, and Creative Convos. Her mission is to continue making quality content to help move the conversation and the culture forward while creating bigger opportunities for people to think, grow and create freely.

Elise Solberg is a pianist, songwriter, producer, composer and entrepreneur born in Tokyo, Japan, raised in Denver, Colorado and based in Los Angeles, CA. She is a versatile performer in multiple styles of music, including pop, R&B, rock, classical, and jazz. Most recently, Elise performed with Beyoncé at the 2022 Oscars, performing the Oscar-nominated song "Be Alive" from King Richard. Elise has performed with 5x GRAMMY nominated artist Chloe x Halle at the MTV Movie & TV Awards, Global Citizen Festival, NPR's Tiny Desk concert, James Corden's Late Late Show and more. She is also the Founder and Executive Director of Turn Up Her Mic, a non-profit organization empowering and increasing women in live music through informative panels, programs and more. In 2022, her non-profit was chosen to host a panel at NAMM on increasing gender equality in the field of music direction. Learn more on her website: https://www.elisesolberg.com/

Piper Payne is a mastering engineer based out of Nashville, TN and Oakland, CA. In Spring of 2019 Piper joined the Infrasonic Mastering team, merging her successful studio, NeatoMastering, with the Nashville based company, owned by Pete Lyman. She began her career with a BFA in Audio from The University of Michigan, continuing her graduate education in Audio at the University of Stavanger in Norway. She has apprenticed under some of the best-known Mastering and audio mentors in the world, including Bob Katz in Orlando and Michael Romanowski in San Francisco.

In addition to mastering, Piper is a Trustee of the Recording Academy (GRAMMYs) and she serves on the P&E Wing Steering Committee and the Advisory Council. She is a Governor of the Audio Engineering Society and she is the Co-Founder and Co-Chair of the AES’s Diversity & Inclusion Committee as well as an active member of Women's Audio Mission and she serves on the Board of SoundGirls.org.

Piper has a diverse background in musical styles. As a drummer, she knows that the best outcome of every project is that it has to feel good. As an engineer, Piper is focused on technical quality and correctness. But, at the end of the day, mastering is about format conversion and quality control so the project gets just what it needs.

GRAMMY Award-winner and eight-time nominee, Emily Lazar is one of the most respected mastering and mixing engineers in the world. Combining old-school style with a deep knowledge of music and cutting-edge technology, Lazar ensures that the magic created in the studio is fully reflected in the final product. She is a true trailblazer, mastering more than 4,000 albums for a hugely diverse group of chart-topping musical luminaries ranging from The Beatles to Wu Tang Clan and virtually everyone in between, breaking countless barriers along the way. 

This year, she earned a historic three GRAMMY nominations in the Album of the Year category for her work with Coldplay, HAIM and Jacob Collier, scoring the most nominations any mastering engineer has ever received in that prestigious category in a single year. She made history in 2019 as the first female mastering engineer to win the GRAMMY for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical for Beck’s album Colors. She has previously earned GRAMMY nominations for her work with Foo Fighters, Vampire Weekend, Bird and the Bee and Sia.

Lazar is the Founder and Chief Mastering Engineer of The Lodge, a world-renowned mastering, mixing and specialized recording facility. She is a Trustee of The Recording Academy and is a member of its National Advocacy and Producer & Engineer’s Wing Steering Committees.