The music plays on despite pandemic
Kirk Starkey has managed to stay busy with video and online collaborations
Though the coronavirus has devastated the live music scene, it hasn’t quite delivered a similar knockout blow to the recording biz.
“The pandemic has provided a lot of opportunities for video and online collaboration, as performers are looking for ways to record and stay active,” Hamilton-based cellist-producer-audio engineer Kirk Starkey told The Spectator.
The Sudbury-born Starkey, who has been based in Hamilton since 2010 when he and his wife, flutist Sara Traficante, found their way back to the city from Ottawa, has just launched his new production company.
“Wolftone Media is brand new and our website will be online shortly,” said Starkey. “My new production company is focused on delivering high resolution audio and video for performers. Thankfully, I have remained very busy throughout the pandemic.”
To that end, Starkey has been involved in several of Music Niagara’s latest YouTube videos, mixed several pieces for the Hamilton Children’s Choir’s online holiday concert, and edited a number of multiscreen videos for the Memphis Symphony Orchestra.
“Making an orchestral mix with 60-plus iPhone recordings makes for an interesting engineering challenge,” said Starkey of the Memphis project. “We have another multiscreen project lined up for April.”
Starkey’s interest in recording goes back to his teen years when he first started using four-track recorders. After advanced cello studies in the U.S. and Germany, Starkey began a year-and-a-half residency at Fabrica, Benetton Group’s communication research centre near Treviso, Italy. It was at Fabrica, a crucible of multidisciplinary interchange, that a 20-something Starkey rediscovered his love of recording, music production and compositional creativity.
“It was designed to be a meeting place of young creative artists of all disciplines from all over the world, and a place where anything could happen,” said Starkey of Fabrica. “I met some incredible artists and engineers, had access to a nice studio, and it was my first exposure to digital recording and Pro Tools (audio production software).”
But Pro Tools is just that, a tool. You’ll need more than that to make it in the recording biz and stay ahead of the game. For that, Starkey pinpointed two necessary qualities: trust and good communication.
“Recording classical music is very specific as it requires attention to detail and is frequently very collaborative,” said Starkey. “My role is to set up conditions for the performer to excel and deliver the best possible master recording. Performers trust you with their work and it’s important to honour that.”
A number of local performers including classical guitarist Emma Rush, tenor Bud Roach, and the Hamilton Children’s Choir have trusted Starkey to produce and/or engineer their recording projects. And more are coming down the pike, so stayed tuned. Not surprisingly, Starkey served as engineer on his 2011 album, “Little Gidding,” which was recorded and mixed in his personal studio, Wolftone Music Lab, and he provided additional engineering on his 2016 album, “Songs of Sudbury,” which was recorded and mixed at Catherine North Studios.
Starkey doesn’t limit himself to working solely in the classical music genre.
“I tend to get hired for classical projects because of the coordination, score reading and the editing involved,” said Starkey. “That being said, I always enjoy and learn a great deal from working with musicians outside of classical music. Recording (local) bands like the Cozmos Quartette and Twin Within is a great musical experience, because the artistic vision is so strong and is unfettered by technical considerations. The focus remains on the emotion of the sound and the mix, which is where it should be. I always like to bring these perspectives back to classical recording.”
In addition to producing, engineering, and recording, Starkey has composed for film including Joe DiBenedetto’s “Adele,” and is the goto cellist for TV/film composers Amin Bhatia and Ari Posner, performing music on shows such as “Flashpoint,” “X Company,” “Anne with an E,” and “Hannibal.”
Since 2018, Starkey has been the cellist for the well-known crossover group, Quartetto Gelato, who are currently preparing to record a new album.
“It looks to be a busy 2021,” said Starkey, “provided we can continue to record safely.”