Alum

Vanessa Parr

Assistant Professor

Affiliated Departments

Berklee Online

Music Production and Engineering (MP&E)

vparr@berklee.edu

Vanessa Parr's Website

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Vanessa Parr is a Los Angeles-based recording engineer. A 2004 MP&E graduate of Berklee College of Music, she has had the pleasure of working with a variety of prestigious and award-winning artists, producers, and composers. She has also worked extensively on many film and television scores, as a recordist, mixer, and editor. Parr’s path began as a staff engineer at the Village Recorder where, for 12 years, she had the good fortune to work with many influential producers and engineers, including T Bone Burnett, Larry Klein, Hal Wilner, Mike Piersante, Ed Cherney, Jim Scott, Don Was, John Kurlander, and Thomas Newman, among others. This foundation helped nurture her recording aesthetic as roots-based and organic.

Thanks to this background, Parr has enjoyed a fruitful career as both a staff and an independent engineer. Although she enjoys all aspects of the recording process, she is the happiest in a studio with a live band, a Neve console, a pair of ATC monitors, and as many ribbon mics as she can find. She is excited to join the Berklee faculty and continue her work as an educator that began as a staff assistant many years ago, helping to provide students with the tools they need to fulfill their creative vision in the studio.

Awards

Engineer for the Grammy–nominated record Tomorrow is My Turn by Rhiannon Giddens and Grammy–nominated album Factory Girl by Rhiannon Giddens
Assistant Engineer for the Grammy–nominated song/performance from album The Phosphorescent Blues by The Punch Brothers, Grammy–winning album Viva La Vida by Coldplay, Grammy–winning album Raising Sand by Alison Krauss and Robert Plant, Grammy–winning song “Not Ready to Make Nice” by the Dixie Chicks, Grammy–nominated song “If It Wasn’t for Bad” by Elton John, Grammy–winning album Continuum by John Mayer, and Grammy–nominated album Currency of a Man by Melody Gardot
Engineer for the Academy Award–winning film Crazy Heart
Assistant Engineer for the Oscar–winning song “The Weary Kind” by Ryan Bingham from Crazy Heart

In Their Own Words

I would hope my students come away from my classes excited about creating or helping to create music, and feeling like they have the tools to achieve their goals.

My background as a senior staff engineer means that I did a lot of staff training. My goal was always to help young engineers feel they had the tools they needed to do their jobs and be effective problem-solvers. I come from the school of "make it work," which often means being creative and working within the means you have.