On Wed, Jan. 31, 2024, the Recording Academy® Producers & Engineers Wing® will come together with the Recording Academy Songwriters & Composers Wing™ at the GRAMMY Museum® in Downtown Los Angeles for the first-ever "A Celebration of Craft." The celebration – a first joint GRAMMY® Week event for the Academy's craft Wings – will commence the Recording Academy's official events honoring the music community in the lead-up to the 66th Annual GRAMMY Awards®. A Celebration of Craft will honor Leslie Ann Jones, a seven-time GRAMMY winner and the first woman Chair of the Recording Academy’s Board of Trustees (1999-2001), who has spent over 40 years in the industry as a recording and mixing engineer and record producer. The event will also salute the year-round work of the Producers & Engineers and Songwriters & Composers Wings and shine a light on the people working behind the scenes to create the year's best musical works – including this year’s Songwriter Of The Year nominees.
"I'm so excited for our Producers & Engineers and Songwriters & Composers Wings to come together for A Celebration of Craft later this month," said Harvey Mason jr., CEO of the Recording Academy. "Both Wings are a critical part of our mission at the Recording Academy to create spaces for music creators to thrive, and I look forward to joining with music people from both of these communities to kick off our GRAMMY Week celebrations."
"From her decades-spanning recording career to her work as former Chair of the Recording Academy's Board of Trustees, a co-chair of the P&E Wing, and much more, Leslie Ann Jones has always been committed to the music community and to excellence in recording," said Maureen Droney, Vice President of the Producers & Engineers Wing. "It's a privilege to convene our national network of creatives and technicians to salute her at A Celebration of Craft with the Songwriters & Composers Wing, an essential collaborator in our effort to recognize the people behind the music."
"A Celebration of Craft will mark the first GRAMMY Week event for the Songwriters & Composers Wing since our Wing was founded in 2021, and we could not be more enthusiastic to come together with our community for an evening dedicated to celebrating their creativity," said Susan Stewart, Managing Director of the Songwriters & Composers Wing. "We're thrilled to co-host this event with our friends in the Producers & Engineers Wing and pay tribute to the diverse creative professions in our industry together."
A Celebration of Craft will take place just days before the Recording Academy will honor the Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical and Songwriter Of The Year, Non-Classical Categories in the General Field of the GRAMMY Awards® for the first time at the 66th GRAMMYs®. The Recording Academy announced these additions in June 2023 after they were voted on and passed by the Recording Academy's Board of Trustees in May 2023; relocating these Categories allows all GRAMMY voters to participate in the voting process for these non-genre-specific Categories and recognize excellence in the important fields of producing and songwriting.
ABOUT LESLIE ANN JONES
A recording and mixing engineer and record producer for over 40 years, Leslie Ann Jones has held staff positions at ABC Recording Studios in Los Angeles, the Automatt Recording Studios in San Francisco, Capitol Studios in Hollywood, and now Skywalker Sound, where she continues her career recording and mixing music for records, films, video games, and television, and producing records primarily in the classical genre. Over the course of her career, she has worked with artists from Herbie Hancock, the Kronos Quartet, Holly Near, and Michael Feinstein, to Santana, Bobby McFerrin, Charlie Haden, BeBe & CeCe Winans, ConFunkShun, and many more.
She is a past Chair of the Recording Academy's Board of Trustees and is the recipient of seven GRAMMY Awards, including four for Best Engineered Album, Classical and one for Best Immersive Audio Album. She serves on the Advisory Board of Institute for the Musical Arts, the Board of Directors of the Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.), and she is an Artistic Advisor to the Technology and Applied Composition degree program at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Leslie was also inducted into the NAMM TEC Hall of Fame in 2019 and is a Heyser lecturer. She was also the recipient of the 2022 G.A.N.G. Lifetime Achievement Award.
Leslie chaired the committee that wrote "Recommendations for Hi-Resolution Music Production," published by the Producers & Engineers Wing of the Recording Academy, and is also a member of the Library of Congress' National Recording Preservation Board.
ABOUT THE RECORDING ACADEMY
The Recording Academy represents the voices of performers, songwriters, producers, engineers, and all music professionals. Dedicated to ensuring the recording arts remain a thriving part of our shared cultural heritage, the Academy honors music's history while investing in its future through the GRAMMY Museum®, advocates on behalf of music creators, supports music people in times of need through MusiCares®, and celebrates artistic excellence through the GRAMMY Awards® — music's only peer-recognized accolade and highest achievement. As the world's leading society of music professionals, we work year-round to foster a more inspiring world for creators.
For more information about the Academy and its Producers & Engineers Wing, please visit www.recordingacademy.com or @ProdEngWing on Instagram. For breaking news and exclusive content, follow @RecordingAcad on Twitter, "like" Recording Academy on Facebook, and join the Recording Academy's social communities on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and LinkedIn.
Photo credit: Steve Jennings.
