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P&E Wing Honors Nile Rodgers for Grammy Week

The Recording Academy Producers & Engineers Wing Presents Eighth Annual Event

The Recording Academy Producers & Engineers Wing’s eighth annual Grammy Week event was held on Tuesday, February 3, at the Village Studios in West Los Angeles. The event focuses on recording, mixing and mastering engineers, and record producers, whose technical expertise and creative brilliance result in Grammy Awards and nominations of their own.

“This annual event is a highlight in the P&E Wing’s yearly itinerary and also provides our community the acknowledgment it so deserves, especially during Grammy Week,” says Maureen Droney, P&E Wing Managing Director. “It is a celebration of all the creative accomplishments that members of the Wing achieve day in and day out, in the studio and everywhere that music is made.”

Recording Academy President/CEO Neil Portnow presented Nile Rodgers with this year’s Recording Academy President’s Merit Award in a special ceremony held in the ballroom of the Village Studios.

Rodgers first came to prominence with Chic, the band he founded in 1976 with bassist Bernard Edwards. As a producer, Rodgers guided classic recordings with artists including Sister Sledge, Diana Ross, Duran Duran, INXS, Madonna and David Bowie, for whom Rodgers produced the artist’s biggest selling album Let’s Dance. Rodgers has remained vital to great recordings, as both a producer and a musician. Another highlight of Rodgers’ career is his philanthropic venture, the We Are Family Foundation, dedicated to creating and supporting programs that inspire and educate the next generation.

Previous honorees at this event have been Chris Blackwell, T Bone Burnett, Tom Dowd, Ahmet and Nesuhi Ertegun, Jimmy Iovine, Quincy Jones, Arif Mardin, Al Schmitt, Jerry Wexler, and Neil Young.

Also celebrated that evening was the progress that The Recording Academy has achieved in Washington, D.C., with substantial support from P&E Wing members. Daryl P. Friedman, Chief Advocacy & Industry Relations Officer for The Recording Academy, announced proposed legislation backed by digital royalties collection agency Sound Exchange that would create new mechanisms to ensure equitable compensation for record producers and engineers. “You should be paid and paid fairly,” Friedman stated, to the applause of the crowd.

Guests included Flea, Ric Ocasek, Diane Warren, Sheila E., Aloe Blacc, Kathy Sledge, Slash, “Weird Al” Yankovic, Recording Academy Chair Christine Albert, saxophonist and L.A. Chapter President Mindi Abair, and many others.

Key personnel from sponsors of the 57th Grammy Awards P&E Wing Event Honoring Nile Rodgers at Village Studios on February 3, 2015, in Los Angeles. Photo: Maury Phillips

Title sponsors included Avid, BMI, DTS, ELS Studio Premium Audio—Powered by Panasonic, Harman Professional brands, Iron Mountain Entertainment Services, Louisiana Entertainment, Music Marketing, PMC Ltd., and Shure.

Participating sponsors currently include Astell & Kern, Audeze, the Audio Engineering Society (AES), Audio-Technica, Capital Bauer Insurance, Guitar Center Professional, iZotope, Native Instruments, Prism Sound, Recording Connection Audio Institute, Lurssen Mastering, SoundExchange, and Westlake Pro.

Visit the Recording Academy’s P&E Wing at www.grammy.org/recording-academy/producers-and-engineers.

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