131st AES Convention Historical Events Chair, Harry Hirsch
The Audio Engineering Society announces the Historical Program for the 131st Convention, which will be held in New York City’s Jacob Javits Convention Center from Thursday, October 20, through Sunday, October 23, 2011. The AES expects this year’s convention to attract more than 20,000 attendees from around the world.
“The goal of the AES Convention Historical Program is to revisit the accomplishments of pro audio past masters within a context which makes them relevant to next-generation audio practitioners,” states 131st AES Convention Chair Jim Anderson. “This year, longtime Historical Events Chair Harry Hirsch [pictured] has nurtured four events, which fully serve that objective.”
Hirsch’s professional audio career spans more than 50 years. He is a former drummer, recording studio owner/builder/designer, and expert CD DVD editor/duplicator. Hirsch has edited and transferred more than 100 DVD interviews for the ongoing AES Oral History Project.
131st AES Convention Historical Events include “Leopold Stolkowski and the History of Analog Recording,“ in which audio engineer Robert Auld will present rare recordings, still photos and film clips drawn from the archives of Stolkowski, whose career spanned from 1917 until 1977; “A Tribute to Walter Sear,” presented by Brooklyn-based engineer/producer/arranger and long-time AES member Noah Simon, whose panel will address Sear’s life and legendary from audio engineering and music composition, to his experimentation with Theremins and synthesizers; “Classical Recording In America: From One Microphone to 24 Tracks,” in which Thomas Fine will explore the history of recording techniques and equipment from 1954 into the early 1970s; and “Audio Archiving and Preservation 101: Two Important Broadcast Collections,” in which James Sam of Stanford University’s Hoover Institution Archives will present the program’s Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Commonwealth Club of California collections.
“Just before he attacked The Alamo, George Santayana said, ‘Those who do not study the past are doomed to repeat it,’” Hirsch says. “In the case of pro audio history, however, our events are clearly inspirational and instructive. Today’s audio pros have a deep and abiding respect for the accomplishments of our predecessors. And by the way, it was really George’s brother, General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna who attacked the Alamo.”
