| Dirk Sciarrotta: Alumnus Takes Home An Emmy
Dirk Sciarrotta (Class of ‘94, B.A., music) can now add Emmy Award-winning sound effects mixer to his resume. Last June, he won the Outstanding Achievement in the
Live and Direct to Tape Sound Mixing Award at the National Academy of Television
Arts & Sciences 34th Annual Daytime Creative Arts & Entertainment Emmy Awards Ceremony.
His acceptance can be viewed at http://www.emmyonline.org/daytime/stream.html.
“It’s all about getting it right the first time with very little rehearsal,” says the
Torrance native, who since 2004 has been nominated three times for his work on the
Tournament of Roses Parade coverage on CBS and three times for “The Price is Right.”
This is his first Emmy, which was for work he did on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.”
While a student at California State University, Dominguez Hills, Sciarrotta aspired to
becoming a recording engineer like his uncle, Don Sciarrotta.
“I never thought I would be doing television,” he says after nine years in the industry.“Before this, I worked for Disneyland for seven years. I started while I was still in
school, doing live sound at the park for all their shows. After meeting some people in
the television industry, an opportunity opened up, and I did well at it. So it snowballed
from there.”
When asked what was next on the horizon, Sciarrotta quips, “More Emmys. I need bookends.”
As a freelance sound engineer, he does audio mixing for hundreds of television shows,
concerts and events, including “The Price is Right,” the Soul Train Music Awards, Cirque
du Soleil and U2’s Zoo TV tour. Taking his years of expertise, he, along with business
partner Tom Evans, established Cuelogic Audio more than a year ago.
(http://www.cuelogicaudio.com/index.html) The company that provides custom audio playback
systems to the entertainment industry and its equipment and software has been used during
broadcasts of the “Grammy Awards,” “The Apprentice” and “Family Feud.”
Sciarrotta says that his greatest influence as a student at Dominguez Hills was professor
of music David Bradfield.
“He was real; he told you like it was,” says Sciarrotta. “He didn’t sugarcoat anything, which prepared us to leave school. You weren’t surprised when you got out there in the working world.”
- Amy Bentley-Smith and Joanie Harmon
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