Kronos at Skywalker Sound: An Interview with Leslie Ann Jones

This interview with Leslie Ann Jones, Director of Music Recording and Scoring at Skywalker Sound, draws on more than two decades of recording engineering for the Kronos Quartet. The 2019 recording of Terry Riley’s Sun Rings, for which she and mixing engineer John Kilgore won a Grammy, serves as a touchstone. The conversation provides insight into shared responsibility and collaboration during the recording process, especially as Jones reflects on the navigation of values in classical music recording and the quartet’s use of technology. Jones, whose influential career has also stood out in the popular and film music industries, shares insights into her craft, in particular how personal relationships, aesthetic and technical precision, and a focus on professionalism intersect. An introductory text widens the scope to frame Jones’s extraordinary career as engineer and producer, ultimately suggesting that we might listen to Kronos recordings with her contributions and expertise in mind.