Strength in Diversity: Learning-through-doing in the Audio Recording Engineer at the Banff Centre

The Audio Recording Engineer Practicum of the Banff Centre mentored by James ClemensSeely hosts up to nine international participants to refine their technical and artistic skills inresidencies from four to twelve months long. Dating back to a 1984 Sound Internship programfounded by Theresa Leonard, it has evolved since then into a world-leader in sound recordingvocational training. Banff alumni have gone on to win multiple best-engineered Grammy andrecording engineer of the year Juno awards as well as many leading positions in the industryand academia. Clemens-Seely is continuing the efforts of Leonard to ensure gender parity andcultural diversity in the Practicum recruitment. Since Sept 2019, the Practicum has welcomeIssa Traoré, also known as Ken Lagare, as the first African participant. Laura Ferguson willpresent the demographics and background of the Practicum participants between Spring 2018and Fall 2019. Then, Clemens-Seely will highlight the alternative pedagogy approach of thePracticum based on learning-by-doing together with the other participants, with access to awealth of in-house knowledge, visiting faculty experts, extensive analog and digital audioequipment, and world class artists = collaborating across a great range of musical genres.