New York, NY (October 5, 2012)—The SPARS Board of Directors has named the recipient of the 2012 SPARS Legacy Award: Christopher Stone. The award will be formally given to Stone at the joint SPARS/AES Student Party to be held at historic Coast Recorders, San Francisco, on October 27, 2012 as part of SPARS 133rd AES Convention activities.
Chris Stone is a music industry executive with a list of credits spanning over 30 years of hit records, films and outstanding music service businesses and professional associations. He was one of the original co-founders and former president and chairman of the Board of SPARS. He was also co-founder and executive director of the MPGA, a non-profit guild for leading audio engineers and music producers, which merged into The Recording Academy as The Producers and Engineers Wing.
In 1968, Stone co-founded with Gary Kellgren, the Record Plant Recording Studios, which provided audio recordings for many of the most revered artists in the music world. Legendary acts like the Rolling Stones, the Eagles, Bruce Springsteen, Bonnie Raitt, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, the individual Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Fleetwood Mac, Heart, Guns & Roses, Whitney Houston, Billy Idol, Motley Cru, Prince, Chicago, Barbra Streisand and others were among the groups who recorded chart-topping projects at the studio. Stone sold the facility to Chrysalis Records in 1989. Today, the Record Plant continues the rich tradition established by Stone and is recognized as one of the leading audio recording facilities in the world.
Chris Stone has been involved in many films and live events, including the Concert for Bangladesh, Flashdance, Star Trek, the Oscars, the Grammys, the original Woodstock Festival as well as the follow up Woodstock ’94 project.
Stone is a successful journalist, providing columns for Pro Sound News, Sound On Sound and Mix magazine. He is a sought after lecturer, delivering the keynote addresses for a recent European conference for APRS and the 2008 AES Convention. He is a successful author, having published the book Audio Recording for Profit (The Sound of Money). Chris Stone is a member of the faculty at USC, teaching “The Business and Economics of the Audio Recording Industry.” He also teaches “Music Industry Entrepreneurship” for the online school at Berklee College of Music.
The SPARS Legacy Award was established by the SPARS Board of Directors as an annual award to honor an industry luminary who historically has demonstrated outstanding leadership, vision and commitment to the recording studio movement in America and the professional recording craft in general.
SPARS
www.spars.com
