Death of Grammy-winning studio genius
RIPThe Swiss recording engineer Marc Aubort has died at his home in Connecticuty, aged 93. Among other achievements he worked with Ray Dolby to perfect noise reduction technology and remained close friends with him until Dolby’s death in 2013.
Aubbort migrated to the US in 1955 and worked for Vanguard Records in New York City, becoming chief engineer within three years. Among his early triumphs were debut recordings of Joan Baez and Bob Dylan.
Aubort went on to found Elite Recordings, winning six Grammys. In the 1970s, his recordings of the St Louis Symphony with Leonard Slatkin were considered the best in the US.
Marc’s daughter Nadine married the violinist and conductor Peter Oundjian.
With a tape recorder and some Schoeps tube mics, he created magicke. A pioneer and inventive practitioner, his artistic pursuit of the most involving sound, still sets standards sought by other.
There is an online discography of his work and it is one memorable recording after another, including those St Louis Gershwin recordings but also Abravanel and Utah on Vanguard, Crumb’s Dark Angels for Vox, Bolcom’s piano recordings for Nonesuch, and the list goes on. But perhaps pride of place: Paul Jacobs and his Debussy recordings for Nonesuch.
In the more than fifty years of recording I have been honored to do, there was no finer engineer than Marc. Along with Joanna Nicrenz, they produced the most incredible results imaginable, neither letting either me nor the orchestra get away with anything.
But he was also a gracious gentleman with great wit and charm. Pipe firmly planted, he had a firm but respectful way of dealing with the most complex of problems. His name will always be at the top of anyone who worked with Marc or listened to the quality of his work.
Leonard – thank you so much for those heartfelt words. He absolutely treasured working with you and spoke of his collaborations with you and the St Louis Symphony as high points in his recording career. I had a little chuckle about his pipe smoking – boy how we hated the smell!
Warm regards, Nadine Aubort
Dear Leonard, your Rach records for vox is available again in a new restored sound, but only second symphony, one of your great achievement in my opinion ( with your American composer serie on RCA, your Copland or Barber for emi,with.’..well there are more than i can say…)what a shame the previous Vox cd releases were sounding so bad….
I echo Leonard Slatkin’s comments. It was my pleasure to work with Marc and Joanna on many of the recordings the St. Louis Symphony made during the Slatkin era. Marc was as good as it gets.
I am so sad to hear. Marc played an important role in the early days of Dolby Laboratories. He was one of the earliest adopters of our noise reduction system when Ray demonstrated it to the major record company executives and recording engineers during a sales trip to NYC in the fall of 1966. He then became the manager of our first NY Office (since we were located in London) and was responsible for much of the good will and trust our fledgling company earned in the NY recording industry. My husband Ray had the highest regard for Marc’s musical and technical talents, and we all stayed good friends long after the company reached global acceptance and fame and we eventually moved Dolby Labs headquarters to San Francisco.
Nadine, please let me have your address so I can send you the book I am publishing about Ray’s life and career, in which Marc was a significant contributor. I am sending you and your family my condolences with very fond memories of Marc.
Dagmar Dolby
Dear Dagmar – I replied to this yesterday but don’t think I managed to post so am trying again. Thank you so much for all that history. I did not know all of those details! Please reach out to me through my email. I would love to have a copy of your book. Best regards,
Nadine
Please accept my sincere condolences with Marc’s passing.We met during the early 1960, through our friend Albert Grundy. Also, he visited me when going to your brother here in Orange County.
Johan VanLeer, (96)
Santa Monica CA 90405