Ana Schon is an Argentine singer, songwriter, producer, and researcher. She was born in 2002 in Buenos Aires, and started singing before she could talk.She graduated Berklee College of Music in 2022 and now is a master's student at the MIT media lab in the Opera of the Future group, researching music technology for expressive performance spaces.Her 2 main musical projects are latin-indie-folk duo Borneo, with guitarist Mateo Monk, and a solo project of songs in English and Spanish as Ana Schon.
MUSIC STUFF
SOME RECENT PERFORMANCES
- June 1, 2023 | Schubert Theatre at Boch Center | Boston, MA
----- supporting Julieta Venegas- May 15, 2023 | The Jungle | Somerville, MA- May 5, 2023 | Exit Galleries | Boston, MA- April 14, 2023 | Brighton Music Hall | Boston, MA
----- supporting Los Amigos Invisibles- April 1, 2023 | Paul's Place | Quincy, MA
portrato
holiday
PRESS (US)
WERS "Our Favorite Local Albums of 2023"
Lucy Spangler, "An Interview with Argentine Indie Artist Ana Schon" on Five Cent Sound
Music Shelf with Mustard "On the Road with Ana Schon"
Boston Globe "Give AI engine text prompt, get song. Where does that leave musicians?"
live video
SOUND STUFF
some recent shows as tech:
- Tod Machover - Flow Symphony (August 2024)
live sound engineering - performed at Seoul Arts Center (South Korea)- Jessica Shand - Transmutations (July 2024)
live sound engineering - performed at MIT Media Lab- Jessica Shand + Manuel Cherep - Organology (October 2023) - live sound- Tod Machover - VALIS (September 2023) -
sound production/live sound engineering - performed at MIT Music and Theater Arts- Tod Machover - Overstory Overture (March 2023)
performance systems tech - performed at Lincoln Center (NYC) and Seoul Arts Center (South Korea)
some recent sound-based projects:
- WebSyn
a web-based synthesizer you can play with your laptop keyboard and customize the sound of.- Playing The Room
a system to express the electromagnetic signatures of rooms as data to generate sounds for live performance.*some recent production work:
- Jessica Woodlee - Whiskey and Rainy Day
Contact
press photos
via asher thomas, camille ingman, vika brennick
"portrato" liner notes
this project is about turning 21-ish years old. its a weird time to do it especially when you can record it all into music. hope it helps u as much as writing it it helped me navigate.
credits, because the album would not exist were it not for the amazing musicians that were a part of it:track 1. portrato
- drums: juanjo botero
- bass: preston lydotes
- electric guitars: vince baur
- produced & engineered: trina egner, alex vaccarello
- mix: teddy walshtrack 2. you would never
- drums: juanjo botero
- electric guitars: kyle brady
- produced, mix: ana schontrack 3. mejor sin ver
- produced: ana schon, sebastian schon
- mix: sebastian schontrack 4. damn!!
- produced: ana schon, sam knight
- mix: ana schontrack 5. expiration date
- produced & mix: ana schontrack 6. popcorn
- produced: ana schon
- mix: teddy walshtrack 7. inercia
- drums: alex williams
- bass: aidan walls
- guitars: ana schon
- produced & engineered: alester, vince baur
- mix: teddy walshtrack 8. medicine
- drums: mati moar
- bass: addie
- electric guitars: josh kim
- produced & mix: peter wang
- add. engineer: kas mehratrack 9. bell bottoms
- produced: ana schon, sebastian schon
- mix: sebastian schon- track 8 mastered by ryan sierakowski
- all others mastered by shane minsterspecial thanks to ciara atkins, annie bass, hayden elizabeth, kirsten kirk, donovan milner, jess woodlee. u were part of this.
thanks to mom for bearing with dad and i while we recorded tracks 3 and 9
thank u i love u
"HOLIDAY" liner notes
an EP about the passage of time, broken promises, and the worst month and a half EVER !!!!credits:track 1: halloween, pt. 2
- prod, mix: ana schontrack 2: acadia:
- prod, mix: ana schon
- recording engineer (drums): ciara atkins
- drums: mati moar
- slide guitar: sam wymantrack 3: i can't fix u
- prod: ana schon
- mix: teddy walsh
- recording engineers: ciara atkins, louie hamel
- drums: mati moar
- guitar: cordell laytontrack 4: get worse
- prod, mix: ana schontrack 5: TYITMHWNH
(the year i thought my heart would never heal)
- recording engineer: ciara atkins
- assistant engineers: louie hamel, sam harris
- mix: louie hamelmastered by ryan sierakowski
photography by vika brennick
special thanks: donovan milner, hayden elizabeth, madre y padre, ale (my therapist), mateo monk.
Ana Schon - Portfolio
I am an Argentine singer, songwriter, producer, and researcher. I was born in 2002 in Buenos Aires, and started singing before I could talk.I graduated Berklee College of Music in 2022 and now am a master's student at the MIT media lab in the Opera of the Future group, researching music technology for expressive performance spaces. My work focuses on finding ways to connect people to and through music by developing interactive experiences, engaging performances, and original compositions.Some selected projects:
Recent sound engineering work:- Lee Bae – La Maison de la Lune Brûlée (May-November 2024) -
systems design/installation sound/mix for Tod Machover's Sailing Through Fire (2024) -
Collateral Event of the 60th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia.- Tod Machover - Flow Symphony (August 2024)
live sound engineering - performed at Seoul Arts Center (South Korea)- Jessica Shand - Transmutations (July 2024)
live sound engineering - performed at MIT Media Lab- Jessica Shand + Manuel Cherep - Organology (October 2023) - live sound- Tod Machover - VALIS (September 2023) -
sound production/live sound engineering - performed at MIT Music and Theater Arts- Tod Machover - Overstory Overture (March 2023)
performance systems tech - performed at Lincoln Center (NYC) and Seoul Arts Center (South Korea)
Selected original music projects:
Performing Performance Spaces - M.S. Thesis Project (Ongoing, 2024-2025)
Abstract
From basements and living rooms, to bars and clubs, to stadiums and arenas, the spaces that become venues for music performances bring with them unique features that can present sound reinforcement challenges. This is especially the case with smaller, lower-budget community-run or pop-up performance spaces, which may display more non-ideal characteristics like a higher electrical noise floor or unique acoustics. Qualities like these, coupled with the people occupying the space, distinguish a performance context from another - to a band on a long tour or to an audience member attending many shows in the same city.
This thesis proposes a series of live music performances using a system that senses unique qualities of venues, interpreting data to modulate aspects of the sound reinforcement applied to instruments played by musicians. Modulations can swing from exaggerating or emphasizing to neutralizing the unique features of the space. Throughout this project, these performances that use the system are organized in vastly different spaces in the Boston area, culminating in the premiere of the Wellbeing of the World Symphony by Tod Machover in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
In a performance with this system, the musicians and audience can share a musical experience that fosters awareness of context, the here and now, and shows the significance (in music and beyond) of the places and the people we are with.
This thesis is advised by Tod Machover, with readers Eran Egozy and Andrew McPherson.The performances that make up this project, which involve original music and the system it describes, will occur over the course of the Spring, 2025 in varied venues around Boston. The premiere of the piece Here, Now, the cornerstone of this project, is in the evening of March 13th at the MIT Media Lab.More timely updates available on my Substack.Read the full proposal here.
Playing the Room
(spring 2024)
is a performance tool/instrument that uses electromagnetic frequencies present in a room as a control signal to play music with a modified electric guitar and MaxMSP.
performing with playing the room involves exploring physical space to find signals present in it, from the 60Hz hum of electrical current passing through outlets to the high frequencies emitted by cellphone screens to, potentially, custom-built transmitters placed in strategic locations. By playing with it, the performer establishes a sense of place, an electromagnetic map that varies in different rooms and even when played by different people.
this project was developed for MAS.S63 Sensor Technologies for Interactive Environments. it uses the disconnected grounding wire on a Hagström electric guitar as an antenna whose signal gets converted to audio via an audioSniffer circuit, then brought into MaxMSPS as digital audio through an audio interface.
Foundations Zone for Jeanne R. Johnson Education Center @ Dallas Symphony Orchestra (Opens Spring 2025)
The Opera of the Future group at the MIT Media Lab is creating a music education center at the Dallas Symphony Orchestra to be permanently installed in their building and opened in Spring 2025. (View full press release here).
The Center is divided into five zones and a final performance, each of which focuses on one aspect of how music comes together.
I am leading the development of the Foundations zone, which focuses on visceral, immediate interactive experiences that help visitors explore how sound is produced in acoustic instruments as well as machines.
These interactions are powered by modified instruments and controllers, as shown in the images below.
WebSyn (fall 2023)
(The above is an embed of the synthesizer that can be used on this page, also available at anaschonml.github.io)
WebSyn was my final project for Harvard's CS50 Intro to Computer Science course. I wanted to make a very simple, well-documented instrument that would not require downloads or special controllers.
This synthesizer is programmed with Flask and JavaScript using the Web Audio API. It is designed to work on any desktop browser, though currently not supported on mobile.