Two classical albums recorded by WCRB Lead Sound Engineer Antonio Oliart Ros in WGBH’s state-of-the-art Fraser Performance Studio have won Grammy Awards.
“It’s thrilling,” says Oliart Ros. “When I’m working in a studio with musicians, I always feel like every project deserves a Grammy—but it’s nice when it happens.”
Anthony Rudel, station manager of WGBH’s classical station WCRB, is one of Oliart Ros’s biggest fans.
“Antonio simply is the best recording producer and engineer I have ever had the honor of working with,” says Rudel. “He has an amazing ear and ability to draw the best playing out of people.”
Orange, a world premiere recording of music by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw, performed by the Attacca Quartet, won for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance category. For Oliart Ros, this is a particularly special award as he was not only the engineer, but a music producer. And to top it off, the composer was present in the studio when the recording was made.
“In those roles,” he says, “I was kind of the glue in making it happen, not only technically, but artistically and logistically.” Being a musician himself—he previously played lead flute for the Mexico City Philharmonic—helps him be an even better recording engineer, he adds.
Oliart Ros also earned a Grammy for the Boston Modern Orchestra Project recording of composer Tobias Picker’s Fantastic Mr. Fox, in the Best Opera Recording category. A three-act opera, this modern fable is based on a children’s book by Roald Dahl.
Oliart Ros grew up in coastal Veracruz, Mexico. He took up the flute in high school and became an electrical engineering student in college, while still a serious music student.
A teacher encouraged him to take his musical talents to New York City, and he was accepted into Mannes School of Music, one of the city’s top music schools. While there, the school relocated and needed to build a new recording studio. That’s the moment when Oliart Ros’s talents merged, and he took on the challenge of building the studio.
Years later at WGBH, he played a key role in determining the specifications and architecture for Fraser, one of the country’s most sophisticated acoustically designed studios. Designed for isolation, absorption and diffraction, the studio is essentially a "room within a room." A floating floor is suspended on top of a resiliently mounted concrete slab, which isolates the studio from the rest of the building. The acoustically treated fiberglass walls allow for low-frequency absorption, while the high ceiling provides additional sound diffraction.
Oliart Ros is WGBH’s go-to engineer for classical recordings, most recently through WGBH’s partnership with Warner Classics. He recently engineered and edited Warner’s Songs of the Cello, a solo album featuring cellist Taeguk Mun, and American Postcard, the second album by the piano duo Naughton Sisters.
“One of the things that makes this achievement even more amazing is that we are a radio station, not a record label,” says Rudel. “This speaks to the depth of talent and versatility of our WCRB classical team.”
Oliart Ros is engineer for the live broadcasts of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, which air Saturdays at 8 pm on 99.5 WCRB, with a repeat on Mondays at 8pm.
