The International Bluegrass Music Association has announced the creation of a new award to be given each year as a part of their Special Awards ceremony. These are their non-performer awards given to people in the industry who contribute behind the scenes.
Starting this year, their will be an award for Bluegrass Sound Engineering, highlighting a single audio engineer for top work on either live sound or studio engineering during the annual eligibility period. The published criteria for the award list the following as eligible…
recording engineer(s), mixing engineer(s) mastering engineer(s) and live sound engineer(s). Engineers listed as “assistant engineer” “second engineer” or “additional engineer” are not eligible.
Candidates will be chosen based on:
- quality and professionalism in their work
- contributions to the field of audio engineering
- ability to foster the image of bluegrass music
- work that creates the best possible representation of bluegrass music audio for the public
There will be many experienced engineers deserving of this award, and it is sure to be a very competitive category.
Live sound, in particular, can be a thankless job where no one even notices you are there until there is a problem. You have to please both the performers on stage and the audience as well, and in the moment the music is happening.
Hats off to IBMA for recognizing their crucial work.
