Recording Arts & Show Production Faculty

Bob first recognized his passion for production at the age of fifteen when he discovered the wonders of cassette bedroom recording in the rural town of Clay, WV. When he was just 18 years old, Bob made the decision to leave West Virginia and move to Orlando, FL where he quickly found other musicians who had the same interests and formed a band, playing various venues throughout Florida and touring nationally. When Bob wasn’t on the road, he ran live sound at various venues in the greater Orlando area and interned at local studios to sink his teeth into all aspects of music production. Little by little, he started learning the real fundamentals of sound reinforcement in both live and studio applications, along with analog tape and digital audio workstations. Sixteen years later, Bob has recorded, mixed or mastered over 300 records and worked as head engineer for thousands of bands at live venues. His credits speak for themselves, along with his passion for audio and dedication to teaching others who are interested in this wonderful thing called music.

Chris Jay has been a professional audio engineer for over two decades. He got his start in the entertainment industry in 1995 working with Sublime on the first Warped Tour as their merchandise representative and stagehand. After the tour, Lee ”Scratch” Perry invited him to work as an assistant in the studio on the album “Lee Perry vs Sly & Robbie.” That time in the studio was what drove him to dedicate his career to audio engineering. Since then, he has worked on many albums ranging in genre from blues, punk, hardcore, and reggae. In various capacities, he has worked with a wide array of popular artists such as Outkast, Busta Rhymes, Missy Elliot, LL Cool J, Trick Daddy, Cash Money, and The Beach Boys. He also works for Electronic Arts as an Audio Artist handling commentary and sound design for Madden and NBA Live.

When Dave was 19, he moved from the suburbs of Philadelphia, PA to Los Angeles, CA to work for Americorps and to see what LA could offer. One morning, his roommate woke him up. “Hey, a friend of mine is working on a film and they need production assistants,” he said. “If you can catch a bus and be there today by 9, you’ll have the job.” Needless to say, Dave caught the bus. After that movie wrapped, he moved on to a few more Hollywood projects, ultimately working as a story producer on a nationally-syndicated reality game show. Having found a career that he loved, he returned home to Pennsylvania to learn the basics of filmmaking at Temple University. While interning for a Philadelphia-based animator, Dave met a producer who got him started as a location sound mixer. He quickly realized that his love of music recording and acoustics could be translated into a career in sound for film. Since then, he has worked on a wide array of projects as a sound editor, camera operator, and director for clients such as Hulu, Nickelodeon, and Food Network. A natural innovator, he is always looking for ways to surpass expectations and challenge himself. His interests lie in directing documentaries and creating immersive binaural sound experiences. Dave would love to work on more science fiction pieces, and hopes to someday invent acoustical levitation.

Earl is F.I.R.S.T. Institute’s Director of Education and staff trainer. He’s an avid lover of all forms of digital media. Before devoting his time to training the institute’s staff, he dedicated his career time moonlighting as an audio engineer throughout Orlando, FL. He’s helped build audio and lighting systems for roller coasters and theme park attractions as well as spent a decade trying not to get covered in paint and Captain Crunch doing sound for Blue Man Group. In fact, Blue Man Group liked him so much they sent him to Miami and Las Vegas to help with appearances at the Miami Children’s Museum and the Latin Grammys. Earl has been part of the F.I.R.S.T. Institute team for over ten years. Here’s to ten more!

At the age of 8, Freddy started learning how to play the saxophone and later on, the piano. By age 12, he knew he wanted to work behind the scenes making it all happen. Freddy’s career started in New York in the mid 90s in live sound and live TV.  For the last 20 years, he has done live audio for Good Morning America, The Daily Buzz, Court TV, TNA Wrestling, The Golf Channel, etc. Currently, he is still freelancing as a live sound engineer and teaching Recording Arts and Show Production at F.I.R.S.T. Institute. 

With a Bachelor of Arts in Entertainment Business and a Associates of Science degree in Recording Arts from Full Sail University, Jason Aming has worked in entertainment industry for almost twenty years. Hired as a studio technician and working into an assistant engineer position for a Wycleff Jean record, Jason continued on thru live sound engineering in his career. In 2007 he became an Monitor Engineer and an Assistant Front of House Engineer for the BET Caribbean Jazz Festivals for the following three years. From 2010, Jason has worked with Universal Studio’s Orlando as a Front of House Engineer and an Audio Specialist on various productions inclusive of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter experience and their annual Marquee events which feature various Pop performances. Jason also shares a lot of his passion for the entertainment industry as part-time instructor at F.I.R.S.T Institute Orlando, for the Show Production course. 

Jeremy Johnston holds both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music performance.  He performed over 2,000 shows with Cirque du Soleil for more than 3 million fans in 31 countries, most recently as bass player and band director for La Nouba at Disney Springs.  Music he has produced or performed has been featured on HGTV, ABC, NBC & PBS.  Jeremy is active in the Orlando area as a bass player and music teacher and is currently a recording arts instructor at F.I.R.S.T. Institute.

John LaRosa started his audio engineering career after graduating from A.R.T.I. in early 2000. He began as a voiceover editor, which led him to manage an audio department that produced books on tape for publishing companies, such as Harcourt, Inc., and Holt, Rinehart and Winston. LaRosa later changed his career path to strictly work in the music industry as a recording and mixing engineer for genres including: Gospel, Blues, Rock, Pop, RnB, and Rap. LaRosa works at Hard Rock Live Orlando as a stagehand and monitor engineer. He has also been an instructor at F.I.R.S.T. Institute in Orlando and mentor for students since 2003. He enjoys teaching and knowing he is affecting students’ lives in a positive way.

John started his career in the audio industry in 2004 after graduating from A.R.T.I. He then worked at Hard Rock Live fulfilling multiple roles as stagehand, stage setup and breakdown for live productions. He also worked with independent musicians, delivering post production and audio services to artists, dancers and other talents which helped him to expand his knowledge in the industry. Later, he was given the opportunity to do voice over production, audio recording for video post production. This opportunity lasted 10 years, producing a significant amount of audio content for web games, audio books and bilingual voice overs. Prior to joining F.I.R.S.T. Institute, he worked in production of accessibility content and video descriptions for television which were focused on people with visual disabilities.

Michael Cochran began his journey through the world of music as a toddler in Indiana, banging on a two-octave organ. His career started off with his bachelor’s degree in music composition from the University of Florida, which led his studies to Europe where he continued his music education at the Conservatory de Musica in Rome. Michael has studied and worked alongside amazing composers and orchestrators, which solidly broadened his knowledge of composing musical scores for film and television as well as live show productions. After scoring and conducting for various orchestras, he naturally launched his career as a Producer and Musical Director for live stage shows and music artists. In the studio where he now spends most of his time, Michael works closely with his artists’ individuality while producing their tracks, performance, vocal style and sound – being ahead of the curve on the pulse of today’s music. Michael has worked with Beyonce, Miley Cyrus, Janet Jackson, Alicia Keys, Hong Kong Disney, Disney Cruise Lines, Euro Disney, Disney on Ice, and many more. In 2016, Michael garnered a nod on the official Grammy ballot in the Record of the Year category for the song, “Without You” with his artist, Chaz Robinson. Michael is currently on the Producer’s Panel for The Florida Music Festival, and is judging and teaching master classes in music production around the world.