Third Coast International Audio Festival :: HAPPENINGS :: Conference

Third Coast Festival
Navy Pier
848 East Grand
Chicago, Illinois
60611-3509

312-948-4682
info@thirdcoastfestival.org

2012 Conference bios will be posted mid-summer.

The son of a scientist and a doctor, Jad Abumrad did most of his growing up in Tennessee, before studying creative writing and music composition at Oberlin College in Ohio. Following graduation, Abumrad wrote music for films, and reported and produced documentaries for a variety of local and national public radio programs, including On the Media, PRI's Studio 360 with Kurt Andersen, Morning Edition, and All Things Considered. He currently co-hosts and produces WNYC’s Radiolab. (Audio Doctor & Host, Third Coast Awards Ceremony)

Since age four, Chicago-based songwriter / performer Andrew Bird has been playing music ranging from classical to early country blues. He's spent the past 13 years writing pop music infused with unconventional violin, glockenspiel, guitar, and his trademark whistling. Bird has released 11 albums, most recently the widely lauded Noble Beast (2009) which has won praise from Esquire, the New York Times Magazine, and NPR, among others. Amazon.com recently named Bird’s Mysterious Production of Eggs, including original artwork by print artist Jay Ryan, one of the "100 Greatest Indie Rock Albums of All Time." (The Mysterious Production)

The Books formed in New York City in 1999 when two neighbors started collaborating on what they considered pop music. In fact, Nick Zammuto and Paul de Jong - perhaps by a mix of accident and design - developed a sound that over a decade later still defies categorization and mystifies critics and fans alike. Still - people try. Their music has been called many things: surreal, playful, transcendent, innovative, magical, heartbreaking. (Presenting the 2010 Third Coast ShortDocs: Book Odds)

Emily Botein is an independent radio producer, editor and consultant based in New York. She has helped to launch national shows and series, focusing on documentaries and cultural programming. Botein's work often brings new voices to radio, as reporters and hosts. She has been associated with a range of shows and institutions, including American Routes, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, The Metropolitan Opera, NPR, The Next Big Thing, Studio 360 and Weekend America. (The Script Disappears)

Scott Carrier is an independent radio producer and writer who lives in Salt Lake City, Utah. His radio stories have been broadcast by This American Life, Day to Day, Marketplace, Savvy Traveler, and his print stories have been published in Mother Jones, Esquire, GQ, Harper's, and Rolling Stone. In 2006, Carrier (along with other Hearing Voices producers) received a Peabody Award, and in 2009, he was selected as a Rasmuson Fellow by United States Artists. He currently teaches journalism classes at Utah Valley University, in Orem, Utah. (“In the Moment” Radio)

Jenny Asarnow produces talk shows and youth programming at KUOW Public Radio in Seattle, and DJs at the Pacific Northwest's freeform online-only community station, Hollow Earth Radio. She created the MQ2 project The Corner, an interactive documentary / art installation created with neighbors around a Seattle street corner. Asarnow’s also the one-woman band Sweet Potatoes. Eitan Isaacson has been developing open source software for ten years. (Getting Closer iPhone application)

Niall Farrell studied Sound Arts and Design at the University of the Arts in London before dropping out to pursue overly ambitious projects further afield. With a failed radio documentary in Cambodia firmly under his belt, he is currently making a film in the Middle East where his philosophy is "if you can get a permit, great - if you can't, do it on the sly." He lives in Derry, Northern Ireland. (Presenting the 2010 Third Coast ShortDocs: Book Odds)

Ira Glass started working in public radio when he was 19, as an intern at NPR. Over the next 17 years he did nearly every production job they had: tape cutter, desk assistant, newscast writer, editor, producer, reporter, and substitute host. He launched This American Life, produced by Chicago Public Radio and distributed by Public Radio International, in 1995. Today, the program is heard by more than 2 million people each week. In 2001, Glass was named "Best Radio Host in America” by Time Magazine. (Audio Doctor)

Dan Grech is radio news director of the WLRN Miami Herald News and co-creator of the award-winning series Under the Sun. Grech has 15 years of journalism experience, as Americas correspondent for Marketplace, as neuro-economics contributor to Nightly Business Report, and as part of the Miami Herald’s Pulitzer Prize in 2000. Grech has taught at Princeton and the Columbia J-School. He performs in an improv comedy troupe and is writing a book about rebuilding his Miami condo after it was destroyed by a hurricane in 2005. (The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Local Radio)

Tim Halbur has written and produced mobile audio projects for the art world, the museum world, and even a working NASA facility. He's currently managing editor of a website about urban planning and design called Planetizen, and is working on Native Ground: A Field Guide to Lake Union - an audio exploration of a manmade lake in Seattle with The Studio for Urban Projects. (Audio in Space)

Alan Hall has been producing radio since 1990 and has built a reputation for long-form documentaries, music features and 'impressionistic radio.' Since leaving the BBC in 1998 he has worked independently, establishing Falling Tree Productions as one of the UK's leading radio production companies. Among many accolades for his work, the invitation to contribute to “Reality Radio - Telling True Stories in Sound” is particularly treasured. (Audio Doctor)

Berit Hedemann has been pursuing innovation in radio and TV at NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation) since 1973. Since 2002, Hedemann has been head of NRK's Radio Documentary Department, and has coached and produced hundreds of radio documentaries, many of which have won international prizes. She herself has been recognized by the Prix Italia and Prix Futura, among other international awards. Hedemann has also written “Listen and See” (2006), a book on radio documentary production. (Small + Big = Dynamite)

Tim Hinman is a British-born radio producer who has lived and worked in Denmark since 1996. As co-founder of the radio features show Ultrasound, he’s been at the forefront of experimental radio production for a number of years. Since leaving Danish Radio (the national broadcaster) in 2007, Hinman has worked on a wide range of audio-based arts projects. In 2009 he founded the monthly digital magazine Third Ear, which launched online and showcases radio features, musicians, and other artists. (Audio Doctor)

NPR science correspondent, Robert Krulwich has been called "the most inventive network reporter in television" by TV Guide. His specialty is explaining complex subjects - science, technology, economics - in a style that is clear, compelling and entertaining. He has explored the structure of DNA with a banana, explained arbitrage by wearing Groucho glasses and illustrated the Texaco-Pennzoil battle with Barbie and Ken dolls. He currently co-hosts WNYC’s Radiolab. (Audio Doctor & Host, Third Coast Awards Ceremony)

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Gwen Macsai is the host of Re:sound, the Third Coast Festival's weekly program on WBEZ-FM. An award-winning writer, producer and humorist, Macsai’s radio work has aired on All Things Considered, Morning Edition, and Weekend Edition Saturday. She’s also the creator of the television sitcom What About Joan starring Joan Cusack, and author of "Lipshtick," a book of humorous first-person essays. (Oscar, Shmoscar!)

Amy O'Leary is a news editor at The New York Times, where she edits online features and multimedia for the Foreign, Business, Sports, and Investigations desks. In 2007, she was the first-ever audio producer hired by the Times, where her multimedia work has been nominated for two Emmy awards. Prior to that, she worked as a producer for This American Life and served as the producer and host of The Tristan Mysteries for WNYC. As a freelance producer, O’Leary produced stories for Radiolab, On The Media, Weekend America and Studio 360. She first learned to produce radio at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies. (The Sound and the Blurry)

Matt Purdy is an independent radio producer who picked up a portable recorder and a microphone a few years ago and has been slowly but steadily making radio ever since. He recently returned to the States after a two year stint in the Peace Corps in Bulgaria. (Presenting the 2010 Third Coast ShortDocs: Book Odds)

Jay Ryan has been making screenprinted posters in Chicago since 1995, first at Screwball Press, and then at his own print shop, The Bird Machine. Known for his humorous animal subjects and computer-free design techniques, Ryan has worked for hundreds of bands, including Shellac, Fugazi, the Flaming Lips, Andrew Bird, and the Decemberists, as well as his own band, Dianogah. He lives and works just barely outside of Chicago, has published two books documenting his favorite posterwork (both by Akashic Books) and rides his bicycle as often as he can. (The Mysterious Production)

For the past thirty years, Claire Schoen has been creating award-winning documentaries in radio, film, video, and multimedia. She has taught documentary radio production at a number of venues, including U.C. Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism, AIR’s mentorship program, “Soup-to-Nuts” workshops, the ExPression Center New Media, and CBS Radio's The Osgood Files. (Audio Doctor)

Artistic director Julie Shapiro has been with the Third Coast Festival since its beginning, back in 2000. Before moving to Chicago, Shapiro spent years behind record stores counters in multiple cities before landing in North Carolina to work at the the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. These days, she DJs with CHIRPradio.org, teaches radio documentary in Chicago and beyond, and can occasionally be heard on the public radio airwaves. (Presenting the 2010 Third Coast ShortDocs: Book Odds)

Andrea Silenzi is the producer of Central Standard on KCUR in Kansas City. She also produces the show Seven Second Delay for WFMU in New Jersey, on which she onceset the world record for most guests interviewed during an hour-long radio show. She has produced for WNYC, PRI's Studio 360, Third Coast's Filmless Festival, Transom, and WFMU's Too Much Information. Silenzi is a graduate of the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies and Wesleyan University. (Presenting the 2010 Third Coast ShortDocs: Book Odds)

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Laura Starecheski is an award-winning independent producer based in the Bronx. She has contributed to The World, Radiolab and Studio 360 among others radio shows, and is a professor of MediaArts at the City University of New York. (Win/Win: Air's Pitch Panel)

Jamie Tarabay has worked as a foreign correspondent, living in and covering some of the world's highest-profile conflict regions, since 2000. In 2007, she was part of the NPR News team that won the Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Award for coverage of the war in Iraq. Tarabay is currently embarking on a two-year project for NPR, reporting on America's Muslims. Australian by birth and Lebanese by heritage, Tarabay grew up in Sydney, Berlin and Beirut. (Beyond the Frontlines)

Steven Tilley has been a sound engineer with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation for over 20 years. He is a sound designer for drama, feature, documentary, and music programs at ABC Radio National and for film, theatre, and sound art installations. Tilley trains ABC radiomakers in new production technologies and techniques and writes and produces regular pieces for The Night Air, Radio National’s audio art/remix program. He has a Masters Degree in Design Science (Audio) from the University of Sydney. (Out of Thin Air: Sound Design for Radio)

Over the course of 20+ years with the nationally-syndicated radio program Echoes, Jeff Towne has recorded interviews and musical performances in locations ranging from closets to cathedrals. He’s also the tools editor for Transom.org, a Peabody Award-winning website dedicated to channeling new voices to public radio. In his spare time, Towne tries to convince independent radio producers not to throw expensive new microphones through their computer screens, just because the Pro Tools bounce handler can't keep up. (Tales of the Tools)

Gregory Warner is a senior beat reporter for Marketplace covering the business and economics of health care. As a freelance radio producer he traveled to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Africa to produce stories for This American Life, Radiolab, and other programs. His profile of a cassiterite miner in Congo won the 2009 Third Coast Festival award for Best News Feature. Warner lives in Philadelphia. (Found in Translation)

Frances Willick is a newspaper reporter currently living in Windsor, Ontario. She previously worked as a bookseller in one of the last remaining independent bookstores in Halifax, Nova Scotia, as an organic vegetable farmer and as a radio producer for community and public radio stations in Nova Scotia. (Presenting the 2010 Third Coast ShortDocs: Book Odds)