Marian Villota
Lecturer of Studio Production and Studio Composition
Marián is a Latin Grammy nominated studio/FOH engineer, producer, musician and sound designer based in Astoria, New York and a native of Madrid, Spain.
Marian is a graduate of Berklee College of Music (Magna Cum Laude) with a dual major in Music Production & Engineering and Contemporary Writing. During her time in Boston, Marian had the opportunity to record a number of projects with ten-time Grammy winner Javier Limón.
Marian performed at The Latin Grammy Ceremony 2013, playing percussion with renowned singer-songwriter Alejandro Sanz. In 2014, she was nominated for a Latin Grammy of her own in the category of ‘Best Engineered Album’ for her work as a recording engineer on the flamenco/world fusion album, “Promesas De Tierra” by Javier Limón.
Marián continued her professional journey in New York as the head engineer at Shapeshifter Lab, where she had the opportunity to work with and record some major figures of the jazz world including: Jack Dejohnette, Ravi Coltrane, Matthew Garrison, Arturo O’farrill, Donny McCaslin, Mark Guiliana, Shai Maestro, among others.
In addition to her FOH and studio work, Marián works in the theater realm as a sound engineer and sound designer. After mixing the Off-Broadway Musical The Hello Girls (59e59), Marián began to collaborate with sound designer Kevin Heard. This partnership led her to work as Associate Sound Designer for the Off-Broadway productions of Safeword (ATA), #DateMe: An OK Cupid Experiment (Westside Theatre, dir. by Lorin Latarro) and Neal Brennan: Unnaceptable (Cherry Lane Theatre). She also worked with the acclaimed writer Candace Bushnell in her staged play Is There Still Sex in The City ( Daryl Roth Theatre, by Lorin Latarro). Most recently Marián worked as Ass.Designer, Programmer and Mixer in Taylor Mac’s jazz opera The Hang, and A1 for the masterful Heather Christian’s Oratorio for Living Things (Ars Nova, dir. by Lee Sunday Evans).
Today, Marián is a versatile freelance who works in a variety of fields. She is the co-founder of (Fill the Blank) Productions - a mobile audiovisual recording company. She is a producer/engineer at Podfly (Podcast Production), and producer/engineer with artists including Javier Limón, Nella Rojas, Yonit Spiegelman, Tali Rubinstein, The Broadway Sinfonietta, El Pájaro Azul and Juana Luna.