Who am I?
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Lara Villanueva is a Maryland-based audio engineer and multi-instrumental musician. Originally from the northern suburbs of New York City, Lara is currently at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University in her final year of the five-year B.M.R.A. program, working on her bachelor’s degrees in Bassoon Performance and Recording Arts and Sciences, as well as her M.A. degree in Audio Sciences - Acoustical Studies.
Music has been a part of Lara's life as long as she can remember. From recorder to violin to piano to bassoon and back to recorder, she enjoys the constant of music within her life throughout the years. Lara has refused to define her musicianship to one singular instrument or one specific era. She defines her role as a musician within a sense of community and collaboration, focusing on the creation of art and bolstering camaraderie. As a performer, her formative years in the outskirts of the Big Apple shaped her growth, participating in many community and professional theatre productions. As such, she holds a deep love for theatrical musical productions, whether they are traditionally operatic or multi-disciplinary. Though she majored in bassoon performance, she plays piano and woodwind doubles with equivalent fluency. |
As a bassoonist, she has studied with Diane Lang (2014-2017) and Diane Fedora (2017) in her pre-college life. She pursued her undergraduate studies in performance in Phillip Kolker's studio at the Peabody Conservatory (2018-2022), and currently studies with Sam Blair. As a pianist, she has studied with Patricia Singer (2006-2018) and Patricia Graham (2018-2019).
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Music and physics are two sides of the same coin, and Lara has always been intrigued by the relationship of sound with spaces. Stemming from that intrigue, she holds an innate curiosity for the impact that sound imprints on the human experience day to day, even in the most mundane of settings. Combined with her love for theatrical productions, she found a beautiful compromise in her intended career path in recording technology and acoustics.
As an audio engineer, Lara has worked on projects primarily within the classical genre, ranging from live ensemble concert recordings at Peabody and other organizations to virtual compilations for internet release. She has front-of-house experience from her time at Keystone Korner, An Die Musik LIVE (along with livestreaming and multitrack recording duties), live sound for various houses of worship in the Baltimore-DC area, and from a multitude of jazz and contemporary concerts at Peabody. |
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In the video realm, she works on the multimedia production team for the Peabody IT Department, where she serves as a camera operator and technical director for high production livestreams, and provides video editing services for course content creation and recitals. She is currently Secretary of the current iteration of the Audio Engineering Society's (AES) Student Delegate Assembly (SDA) and the recipient of the 2022-2023 Audio Engineering Society's Dr. Christian Heil Future of Sound Scholarship created by L-Acoustics, granted yearly to students who demonstrate curiosity and dedication to shaping the future of sound.
With virtual performances taking center stage in 2020, Lara worked on the audio staff of zFestival, a virtual new music festival, and on the staff of the MBEIQ (Music, but everybody is quarantined) Collective as an audio engineer and video editor. Her work on these projects has expanded her knowledge of contemporary compositions and modern audio production techniques. Other projects she has worked on during the pandemic were Yappie: A New Musical (video editor) and Constellation (audio engineer), a virtual ensemble focusing on works by underrepresented composers.
During the summer of 2021, Lara was an audio engineer at the Heifetz International Music Institute in Staunton, Virginia and resumed her audio engineer position at zFestival. While at Heifetz, she had the opportunity to record and work with a combination of students, guest artists, and faculty - including the Borromeo Quartet.
In the summer of 2022, Lara travelled to Verbier, Switzerland to hone her audio engineering skills at the prestigious Verbier Festival as an audio fellow under the joint mentorship of Theresa Leonard and Marc Pasteau. During her internship, she assisted on orchestral live recordings, led jazz and contemporary recordings for the UNLTD concert series, and worked on studio recordings of the resident string quartets of the Verbier Festival Academy.
Outside of music, Lara enjoys crafting in all forms, baking, rock climbing, and settling down with a good book after a long day.
With virtual performances taking center stage in 2020, Lara worked on the audio staff of zFestival, a virtual new music festival, and on the staff of the MBEIQ (Music, but everybody is quarantined) Collective as an audio engineer and video editor. Her work on these projects has expanded her knowledge of contemporary compositions and modern audio production techniques. Other projects she has worked on during the pandemic were Yappie: A New Musical (video editor) and Constellation (audio engineer), a virtual ensemble focusing on works by underrepresented composers.
During the summer of 2021, Lara was an audio engineer at the Heifetz International Music Institute in Staunton, Virginia and resumed her audio engineer position at zFestival. While at Heifetz, she had the opportunity to record and work with a combination of students, guest artists, and faculty - including the Borromeo Quartet.
In the summer of 2022, Lara travelled to Verbier, Switzerland to hone her audio engineering skills at the prestigious Verbier Festival as an audio fellow under the joint mentorship of Theresa Leonard and Marc Pasteau. During her internship, she assisted on orchestral live recordings, led jazz and contemporary recordings for the UNLTD concert series, and worked on studio recordings of the resident string quartets of the Verbier Festival Academy.
Outside of music, Lara enjoys crafting in all forms, baking, rock climbing, and settling down with a good book after a long day.