Ronan Chris Murphy: Festival producer and Instructor Ronan is a multi-genre record producer and engineer that works around the world and splits his time between the United States and Italy. His diverse album credits include Gwar, King Crimson (several albums), Aurora, Terry Bozzio, Steve Morse, Ulver, Pete Teo, Jamie Walters and hundreds more. Some of his video game credits include Assasin’s Creed Brotherhood, Yoku’s Island Express and Mafia III. He mastered the score album for Jordan Peele’s hit film “Get Out”. He works in studios around the world as well as his own studio, Veneto West, in The Berkshires of Western Massachusetts.
Ronan pioneered many concepts in alternative recording education with his recording education business, Recording Boot Camp, which offers workshops and consulting for studios and academic institutions, and he created the worlds first audio blog/podcast with Ronan’s Recording Show. Ronan has lectured internationally including at The Berklee College of Music, SXSW, and The International Organ Festival.
Simone Coen: Instructor and festival consultant. Simone is an Italian recording engineer working out of Turangalîla Recording in Lombardia, Italy. Over three decades in the industry he has worked with many notable international artists including Amii Stewart, Alex Uhlmann, Ornella Vanoni, Carl Brave, Giorgia, and Guinevere. He is perhaps best known as a leading expert in the creation of sampled virtual instruments. He has developed products for his own virtual instrument company, Chocolate Audio, and has worked on the development of products for some of the world’s top digital music companies including Native Instruments, Ableton, Steinberg, Cakewalk, and Presonus.
In addition to his professional studio work, Simone is a respected educator in recording and music technology. He served as an adjunct profession at the State University of Milan and has been a clinician throughout Italy for Apple, Avid and Apogee.
Lij Shaw: Instructor Lij Shaw is the host of Recording Studio Rockstars, often listed as the number one podcast in top recording studio reviews, where he’s interviewed over 500 of the world’s top engineers, producers, musicians, songwriters, and gear manufacturers to uncover the secrets of making great records. From Grammy-winning mixers to iconic studio legends, his podcast has become a trusted resource for self-recording musicians worldwide.
Based in East Nashville, Lij runs his Grammy Award–winning Toy Box Studio, where he produces, records, and writes music. He was recognized with the Unsung Hero Award from the Beacon Center of Tennessee for leading the movement that successfully changed the law to legalize home studios in Music City, protecting the rights of independent creators everywhere. At his core, Lij is a songwriter and producer who loves nothing more than writing, recording, and collaborating with friends. His life mission is to help self-recording musicians and songwriters make their best record ever and become rockstars of the studio themselves.
Pepe Gasparini: Instructor Pepe is a professional bassist, live and studio sound engineer, and music technology trainer with over 35 years of experience. He was among the first Apple Certified Trainers for Logic Pro in Italy and, in 2001, introduced the country’s first UK Pearson-certified high school and university-level professional music courses. For the past 26 years, Pepe has served as President of the Verona music college Aloud, where he coordinates the Pearson BTEC Higher National Diploma programs and trains educators nationwide.
Alongside his technical and academic career, he has driven artistic direction for festivals like Amarone in Jazz and curated masterclasses involving artists such as Hiromi, Mike Stern, Peter Erskine, Stanley Jordan, John Patitucci, Ronan Chris Murphy, Pino Palladino, Martin Taylor and many others.
Leonardo Gabrielli: Instructor Leonardo is an Associate Professor of Circuit Theory and Digital Signal Processing at Università Politecnica delle Marche in Ancona, Italy. His research interests focus primarily on music technologies and AI for signal processing. He is the son and grandson of two innovators in the Marche music industry and has worked as an engineer since his early years to help the Italian music industry thrive by introducing innovative technologies, developing and filing technical patents, and training numerous graduate students to work in this extraordinary field.
He has authored more than 70 research papers and is the author of the books Developing Virtual Synthesizers with VCV Rack and Wireless Networked Music Performance. He co-founded the Museo del Synth Marchigiano, where he serves as Scientific Advisor and he collaborates with Acusmatiq festival. He is a member of the Audio Engineering Society. He organized the 28th DAFx conference in Ancona and serves on the board of AIMI (Associazione di Informatica Musicale Italiana).
He produced a few exclusive performances as technologist and author, including Solo nr.19 and Maritime Rites by Alvin Curran on boats, several networked music performances over hundreds of km and much more. He plays several instruments but now mainly modular synthesizers.
Mike Lembo: Instructor Mike has spent his life empowering careers in music, starting with his first job in the music industry managing Tom Petty’s first band Mudcrutch. He has worked extensively in music publishing and managing the careers of both artists and producers such as Jules Shear, The Church, Paul Q. Kolderie/Sean Slade (Radiohead, Hole, Pixies), Stuart Sikes (Loretta Lynn, Cat Power), Jim Dickinson (The Replacements, Big Star, Alex Chilton, Willy DeVille, Toots and the Maytals), Nick Raskulinecz (Foo Fighters, Stone Sour, Mastadon), Albhy Galutin (Saturday Night Fever, Jellyfish), Bill Drescher (Bangles, Allman Brothers, Rick Springfield), Peter Coleman (Pat Benatar, Steve Earle), Waddy Wachtel (The Church) and Dusty Wakeman (Dwight Yoakam, Lucinda Williams). He currently lives in Italy and runs Funzalo Records
Liz Redwing: Festival administrator. Liz has worked in and around the music and entertainment business for over 40 years and is the administrative coordinator for the California Copyright Conference. The CCC hosts dinner panels, webinars, and mixers aimed at connecting and educating music industry professionals. Prior to that she was the long-time administrative director for the Association Of Independent Music Publishers LA Chapter (AIMP).
Liz also manages producer Ronan Chris Murphy, does copyright research for Skye IP Management and provides music business consulting for artists. She got her creative start at MCA Records and Interscope Music, Interscope Records former publishing company (Ron Sexsmith, Tupac, Matthew Wilder, Possum Dixon, No Doubt, et. al.). Liz also scouted for Atlantic Records and has held positions with management companies, business management firms and law firms, as well as having worked in video production. lizredwing.com
Luigi Bruti: Instructor Luigi Bruti is an Italian musician, electronic musical instrument designer, producer and music-industry professional with over forty years of experience. Italian Accordion Champion in 1976 and International Champion in 1977, his musical background includes accordion, piano, harmony and electronic music.
After beginning his career at SIEL, he joined Roland Europe in 1989, holding key positions in R&D, marketing and product development. He conceived the Roland V-Accordion, a groundbreaking project that helped redefine the concept of the digital accordion. Since 2014, he has contributed to the creation and development of Dexibell, and between 2021 and 2024 served as Project Director Italy for the KORG FISA Suprema.
He is also a producer, arranger and sound designer at MR Studio, founded in 1980. His current research combines music, technology and Artificial Intelligence through a musician-driven approach, using technology to expand creative possibilities while keeping human musicianship firmly at the heart of the creative process.