With the support of more than 70,000 volunteers, artist/activists, Branford Marsalis and Harry Connick Jr have played their part in the rehabilitation of New Orleans after its ravaging by Hurricane Katrina. Together, they have raised the funds and contributed the sweat equity to build 72 single-family homes and ten elder-friendly apartments – and the Ellis Marsalis Center For Music/Musician’s Village Performance Hall.
In 2013, Connick invited Seagate Technology Chairman/CEO Steve Luczo and recording industry pro Jack Leahy to tour the recently completed performance hall at the New Orleans Habitat Musicians’ Village. Moved and impressed by the volunteers’ accomplishments, the Californians observed that the compound lacked one crucial element… a recording studio
Leahy was uniquely positioned to help realise this particular dream. A long-time studio owner and recording engineer as well as past head of WSDG-Walters-Storyk Design Group’s San Francisco operation, he was steeped in the design, technical and financial know-how required for creating a professional recording studio. WSDG was retained to plan and supervise construction of the studio.
Designed to record and mix live shows from the adjacent, 170-seat Performance Hall, the 230-sq-ft EMCM control room provides full connectivity to the venue. Equipped with a Solid State Logic AWS 948 analogue mixing console/DAW controller and JBL M2 monitoring, thes tudio features a custom rear wall diffraction unit and a handsome ceiling cloud, along with two 100-sq-ft iso booths.
‘Apart from the gift of an intimate, first class performing arts space for the Musicians’ Village and the City of New Orleans, the abiding goal for Ellis Marsalis Center for Music is to provide a performing/recording education for motivated local youngsters,’ Leahy says. ‘The EMCM faculty is comprised of talented local educators, administrators and musicians, working with underserved youths attending classes on scholarships. The studio addition is intended to provide the capability to archive the music of the city, stream concerts and events, and serve as a destination for musicians to record in a superlative environment.’
Describing the design and construction process, WSDG Project Manager Joshua Morris reports that: ‘Once drawings and technical specs were approved, our search for a local contractor was simplified by a previous collaboration. We’d worked with Rob Chalmers on Balance Studios in Mandeville, LA, for producer/engineer Dave Fortman. Chalmers was a natural choice for EMCM. In fact, he worked out so well we hope to work with him on a studio we’re designing for Troy (Trombone Shorty) Andrews here.’
‘The building was completed by the time we came on board, so the control room position was pre-determined,’ Morris explains. ‘The new CR is nestled behind the Performance Hall’s rear stage wall with zero impact on isolation. Our design program optimised every square foot. We fine-tuned the acoustics and the precise orientation of the mixing and producers desks and equipment racks. This CR sounds great, and looks terrific.’
‘We have great empathy for the people of New Orleans, and in particular the musical members of this amazing community,’ concludes WSDG architect/acoustician, John Storyk. ‘We were honoured to lend our skills to the EMCM mission.’
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