Biographies

Miroslav Jakovljevic

SDA Chair - Europe & International

Miroslav Jakovljevic, aka DJ URA, comes from Belgrade, Serbia. He has been DJing for the last 15 years. As a 5-year-old, Miroslav got his first turntable, growing up nearby one of the Belgrade's largest music labels - PGP Records. His favorite first vinyl toys in early 80s soon became a great musical collection including disco, funk, punk, metal and rock 'n' roll records. Miroslav attended music high school, playing accordion and piano, and graduated from "Tesla" electro - technical high school in Belgrade. Miroslav is a Graduate Engineer and Associate of Advanced School for Electrical Engineering - Audio & Video section in Belgrade, and also a member of the AES. He became involved in the AES while at the 122nd Convention in Vienna in 2007. At the 124th AES Convention in Amsterdam, Miroslav was elected Vice-Chair of the SDA Europe / International section. He became Chair at the 126th Convention in Munich.

In his producer - engineer career, Miroslav has dedicated himself to electronic musical production, especially house/club music and released few tracks on world famous labels. Specialist for Protools HD, Cubase, Izotope and Logic Pro, he produces all styles of electronic music including hip hop, house, techno, and trance, chill out, and drum’n’bass. As a DJ, he has played in clubs all over the world presenting manufactures like Rane, Stanton, Pioneer, and Technics. Miroslav also has his radio show talking about club culture. He has organized music festivals (Exit, Entrance, Ringring, Dispatche), and coordinated operations of Live Nation concerts (for acts such as Madonna, AC/DC, Rolling Stones) in his home country of Serbia. Now Miroslav is educating newcomers to the music industry from his experience and curricula. That’s the way he goes!

MeiLing Loo

SDA Chair - North & Latin America

MeiLing Loo is a Senior at University of Massachusetts, Lowell (UML) in the Sound Recording Technology Program (SRT). She will graduate with a B.M. in the Spring of 2009. MeiLing's main interest is recording large ensembles. She is currently interning with Lescek Wojcik at Carnegie Hall. Her main goal is to record large ensembles for film.

Music was established early on in MeiLing's life through her musically inclined family. Her Grandmother was a Professional Mezzo Soprano and her Mother still teaches flute. Although MeiLing enjoys dabbling with various instruments, her primary instrument is Voice (Mezzo).

As a senior, MeiLing has been elected Vice President of the UML section of AES. She is also an SRT Supervisor, a leadership position held by six students in the SRT graduating class. In addition, MeiLing is Vice-President of the UML Shotokan Karate club and an RA. In her spare time, she enjoys sewing, drawing, basketball, studying environmental science and baking.

Veit Winkler

SDA Vice Chair - Europe & International

Veit Winkler has been working with sounds since he was 12 years old, starting with an 8-track sequencer based on 11kHz/8bit-samples. After high school graduation in Munich (1999) he practiced in media companies until starting his own small business for freelance sound design and production of functional music. In 2003, Veit started his "Electrical Engineering / Audio Engineering" studies at the University of Arts and the University of Technology Graz, Austria. Since then he's approaching audio from the technical domain.

Veit has been involved in voluntary work since his high school days. He served as the president of the student agency for his studies in Graz over four years. Since his first attending of an AES convention in Berlin 2004, Veit became an active member in the Student Section Graz. In 2006, Veit was elected Vice-Chair of the Student Section and in 2008 he became Chair. He was one of two main organizers for the Student Science Spot at the AES conventions in Vienna 2007 (with Thomas Geiger) and in Munich 2009 (with Daniel Deboy).

In his spare time, Veit enjoys producing electronic dance music, likes to prepare and consume good food and lives with three domestic rabbits that are planned to become the start of a small hobby-breeding.

Philip Parenteau

SDA Vice Chair - North & Latin America

Philip Parenteau has been studying music, jazz saxophone and flute, for over 17 years. He received a B.M. in Jazz Performance with a minor in Music Technology, graduating in 2008. He has been active on the Montreal Jazz scene for over 7 years, playing with various bands ranging from Brazilian Original music, Big Bands, and Wind Symphony Orchestra. He is also a founding member of the "Séquence" Saxophone Quartet playing original compositions and arranging jazz standards for saxophone quartet.

Philip has worked all over North America. Ranging from a Holland America Cruise Ship tour in Alaska and the Caribbean, to Audio work-study at The Banff Centre in Alberta Canada. He freelances for live concert and festivals as a board operator or Chief Sound Engineer and Sound Designer for Broadway musicals presented in Montreal. He also volunteers for the A.U.T.S. (Arts Undergraduate Theatre Society) of McGill University as a Vice-President Sponsorship and Relations. He is currently Vice-Chair of the AES Student Section of McGill University.

He also has worked with past Chair of the North American and Latin Student Section (Josh Tidsbury, Jose Pupo) and studied under past AES president (Theresa Leonard, Wieslaw Woszczyk). He is currently enrolled in the first year of the Master's program in Sound Recording of The Schulich School of Music of McGill University. His main interest is to continue working as a freelance recording engineer and to promote Production P2, the production company he started 3 years ago.

Alex Case

Chair - Education Committee

Alex Case is a professor in Sound Recording Technology at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. An active member of the Audio Engineering Society, and a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America, Case is an engineer, educator, and author who speaks frequently on audio and acoustics across the United States and internationally.

His research and professional activities focus heavily on the technical foundations, creative motivations, and aesthetic merit of recording and signal processing techniques used in multitrack production. Case is a widely published author, with over 100 articles appearing in multiple magazines and journals, and many dozens of papers and tutorials presented at professional society meetings and conferences. His book, Sound FX - Unlocking the Creative Potential of Recording Studio Effects, is the definitive resource on audio signal processing -- for mixing and recording, live and in the studio.

A life-long learner, Case is an active and dedicated educator. In addition to his undergraduate and graduate teaching in the Sound Recording Technology Program at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, Case gives many invited lectures worldwide, at locations including: the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada, Berklee College of Music in Boston, Center for Digital Media Arts and Imaging at Boston University, Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music at New York University, Fermatta Academy of Music in Mexico City, Hartt School of Music at the University of Hartford, New England Institute of Art in Boston, Peabody Conservatory at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, SAE Institutes in Milan and Paris, Schulich School of Music at McGill University in Montreal, Shanghai Conservatory of Music in China, Webster University in St. Louis, and elsewhere. Professor Case is honored to serve the Education Committee.

Joshua Tidsbury

Webmaster of aes-sda.org

Joshua Tidsbury has been working with audio for over ten years, and has been involved with and performing music for more than 16. He built a new recording studio at Lord Beaverbrook High School in Calgary, Alberta, and has founded Canada's first high school recording technology program. He attended the University of Lethbridge and graduated with a B.Sc. in Neuroscience, followed by an M.Mus. in Sound Recording at McGill University. From September 2004 to August 2005, and May 2006 to August 2006 he was an Audio Associate at the Banff Centre.

Currently, he is a Sound Post-Production Mixer at CTV in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and also freelances within the music and post-production communities. He has been active with the AES since the fall of 2004.

In his spare time, he enjoys photography, woodworking, running, swimming, and graphic & web design.

Andrea Zabaznoska

Contributing Editor to aes-sda.org

Andrea Zabaznoska is a Telecommunication and Information technologies student currently focusing her master´s studies in Digital Signal Processing and Audio and Speech Communication at the University of Technology Graz. Her interests in the field span the broad area of digital audio and, to some extent, nonlinear signal processing. Being a relatively novel member of the AES (since April, 2008), Andrea volunteers as the secretary of the AES Student Section in Graz.

Though pursuing a mainly technical career, Andrea has been an active musician for more than 15 years. Having finished both undergraduate and high-school music education, she has given numerous piano recitals and concerts and has earned four national and international piano competition awards. Andrea also has a great passion for singing and lends her vocals to diverse music projects, when the busy schedule allows it.

Favoring teamwork, as well as the constant improvement of her communicational and organizing skills, she has dedicated and continues assigning a considerable amount of time on various volunteering activities. Therefore, her working experience includes a plentiful number of managerial engagements.

In her spare time, Andrea enjoys playing the african drum and the didgeridoo, solving puzzle games, cultivating bonsai trees, learning the japanese tea ceremony, going to concerts and taking care of three rabbits.

Julian David

Contributing Editor to aes-sda.org

Julian David is a senior audio engineering student at the Institute for Music and Media/University of Applied Sciences in Düsseldorf, Germany. This hybrid program involves both a traditional music education as well as technical engineering classes. He has been an active member of the AES for the last three years and has been elected Chairman of the Düsseldorf student section. In his studies, Julian specializes in recording, production and mixing of music. He has earned three AES student recording competition awards and received a scholarship in the "travel abroad" program by the InWEnt gGmbH funded by the German government.

Besides working as a freelance assistant for major German radio and television networks, location recording and live sound companies, Julian also works as an independent music producer and audio engineer(www.soundphile.de). He is an active musician, playing both piano and drums for more than 15 years in jazz and pop music ensembles.

After finishing his internship with Audio Engineering Associates in Los Angeles, Julian has returned to Germany to write his diploma thesis on microphone transformers. He will graduate with the German "diploma" (equivalent to masters degree) in the summer of 2009.

Zach Smith

Illustrator for aes-sda.org

Zach is an Illinois native. He is now a student of recording arts at Full Sail in Winter Park, Florida. After graduation in December 2007, Zach will be pursuing a career in recording, post production and graphic design. An avid musician since the age of 12, Zach has faithfully nurtured his musical abilities through recording projects and techniques, touring, composing and piano/drums performance.

Zach is hoping his move to Chicago will present opportunities to further his dream of a career in the music industry.

Zach is a member of the "Audio Engineering Society", and is an illustrator for aes-sda.org.