Mary Mazurek
Mary Mazurek is a GRAMMY-nominated recording engineer. Her nomination was awarded by the Recording Academy for the 61st Annual Grammy Awards in the category of Best Engineered Album, Classical. She is also a broadcaster, and radio producer. Her work is regularly featured on WFMT Radio and WFMT.com. She is also a sought after educator and speaker who enjoys contributing in the classroom and on panels and committees within her industry and beyond. She serves as a role model and advocate for women in the recording industry, which presently is less than 5% female. Additionally, she loves sharing her sonic insights across disciplines.
Q&A with Mary Mazurek
Q: What is your favorite part of Acis and Galatea?
MM: It’s very difficult to pick just one thing. There is so much gorgeous singing supported by the world class musicians in the orchestra led by Craig Trompeter. The projected artwork and the lighting is beautiful. So, it’s all wonderful.
Q: What made capturing the audio for Acis and Galatea challenging? How is this project different from other recordings?
MM: I’ve recorded in a number of venues with different ensembles and with varying situations. I’ve recorded operas in concert halls and in recording studios but not in a TV studio.
I did a site visit before the shoot and suggested curtains on the walls to aid the acoustics. With social distancing I used additional microphones to insure that instruments in the orchestra were well captured and blended. I also used high-quality headset microphones for each singer, which provided pristine audio while keeping the video shot very clean.
Q: As a grammy-nominated audio engineer and an audio engineer based in Chicago, you have a pretty good overview of classical music happening in Chicago. How has it been to join the Haymarket family for our first project like this?
MM: I have engineered broadcasts with Haymarket in the past, but joining this production was very exciting.
Q: We've seen a photo of your dog listening to Acis and Galatea as you worked on the audio mix in post-production. Did he/she have a favorite part?
MM: Wells really enjoyed the singing of Kimberly Jones. He insisted on sitting on my lap when I was mixing her arias.
The creative team for Handel’s Acis and Galatea, photographed on the film set at Resolution Studios. Photo: Anna Cillan