the short and sweet:
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Lara Villanueva is a Maryland-based audio engineer and multi-instrumental musician known for her resourcefulness and attention to detail. Originally from the northern suburbs of New York City, Lara is a recent graduate from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, in the five-year B.M.R.A. program and received dual bachelor’s degrees in Bassoon Performance and Recording Arts and Sciences, as well as her M.A. degree in Audio Sciences - Acoustical Studies.
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. Her experience ranges across a variety of environments, from studio and location recordings to sound reinforcement, and across genres from classical and orchestral to jazz and pop. She has recorded and mixed for various organizations across the world such as the Boston Symphony Orchestra's Tanglewood Music Center, Verbier Festival (CH), Heifetz International Music Institute, zFestival, The Johns Hopkins University, and jazz venues and houses of worship throughout Baltimore, among other projects. She is the recipient of the Bronze Award at the Audio Engineering Society's 2022 Student Recording Competition (Traditional Acoustic Category), is the recipient of the 2022-2023 Dr. Christian Heil Future of Sound Scholarship created by L-Acoustics, and served as Secretary and Eastern USA/Canada representative for the Audio Engineering Society's Student Delegate Assembly. From her vested interest in her community and her academics, Lara was inducted into the Pi Kappa Lambda Honor Society during her final year of studies at Peabody. |
delve a little further...
as a musician
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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 community and professional theatre productions. As such, she holds a deep love for theatrical musical productions, whether they are traditionally operatic or multi-disciplinary, and has experience in over 30 theater productions as a pit musician. Though she majored in bassoon performance, she plays piano and woodwind doubles with equivalent fluency. Through her entire time at Peabody, she was mentored by Gwyn Roberts in renaissance and baroque recorders of all sizes and had the pleasure of being part of the Historical Performance department's Recorder Consort, and has attended events such as Amherst Early Music Festival's Winter Weekend Workshop for recorder and baroque bassoon. 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 under the guidance of Phillip Kolker at the Peabody Conservatory (2018-2022), and in her final year at Peabody (2022-2023), studied with Sam Blair, with a focus on contrabassoon. As a pianist, she has studied with Patricia Singer (2006-2018) and Patricia Graham (2018-2019). |
as an audio engineer and video editor
Headshot by Randy Ho
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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 and jazz genres, 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. |
In the video realm, she worked on the multimedia production team for the Peabody IT Department, where she served as a camera operator and technical director for high production livestreams, and provided video editing services for course content creation and recitals.
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.
This past summer (2023), Lara worked as an audio engineer at the Tanglewood Music Festival, located in Lenox, Massachuesetts - the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Lara's love for theatrical productions can be seen in her audio engineering work, having recorded live operas as well as running opera recording sessions. She has additionally worked on audio for film with movie productions of Dominic Argento's Postcard from Morocco (Peabody Opera Theatre 2020-2021), and the JHU Barnstormers' Spring 2021 Mainstage Production The Drowsy Chaperone.
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.
This past summer (2023), Lara worked as an audio engineer at the Tanglewood Music Festival, located in Lenox, Massachuesetts - the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Lara's love for theatrical productions can be seen in her audio engineering work, having recorded live operas as well as running opera recording sessions. She has additionally worked on audio for film with movie productions of Dominic Argento's Postcard from Morocco (Peabody Opera Theatre 2020-2021), and the JHU Barnstormers' Spring 2021 Mainstage Production The Drowsy Chaperone.
as a human being
hobbies
Outside of music, Lara enjoys crafting in all forms, baking, rock climbing,
hiking, and settling down with a good book after a long day.
hiking, and settling down with a good book after a long day.
mission statement
In all that I do, I aspire for excellence. |
I want to be the best person that I can be, supporting others in their endeavors and fostering community, whether it be local or worldwide. I want to be the best musician that I can be, and to keep my mind open to the ever-changing nature of the contemporary. I aspire to use my musical skills to highlight the here and now, and promote the growth of diversity and representation in the musical world. I aspire to take pride in my work no matter the result, since each mistake and failure gives me a point to grow from. Growth cannot be without the existence of failure. In my daily endeavors, I work to treat others with kindness and be as welcoming as I can possibly be. I vow to never settle into thinking that I have learned everything, since there is something to learn from everything and everyone, in every moment of my life.
In all that I do, I do it with love. |