Geoff Emerick and Shure to Receive 2003 Technical GRAMMY Awards.

Entertainment Editors

SANTA MONICA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 15, 2003

GRAMMY(R)-winning Engineer Geoff Emerick and audio equipment manufacturer Shure Incorporated have been named recipients of the 2003 Technical GRAMMY(R) Award, it was announced today by the Recording Academy(R).

The Technical GRAMMY Award is presented to individuals and/or companies who have made contributions of outstanding technical significance to the recording field. Formal acknowledgment of the Technical GRAMMYs will be made on February 22 at an event surrounding the 45th Annual GRAMMY Awards ceremony. The 45th Annual GRAMMY Awards will be held at New York's Madison Square Garden on Feb. 23, and broadcast on the CBS Television Network from 8 - 11:30 p.m. (PST/EST). This year, the Academy, CBS and Cossette Productions are breaking new ground by providing the GRAMMY Awards in High Definition TV and 5.1 Surround Sound, which marks the first time a live, primetime, network music special -- and the first major awards show -- has been available with this caliber of technology.

"The creative fearlessness of Geoff Emerick and the immeasurable contribution that Shure Incorporated has made to the world of audio are the achievements of true visionaries," said Producer & Engineers Wing Director Leslie Lewis. "Emerick's groundbreaking and skillful techniques continue to inspire generations and Shure's audio equipment consistently sets the standard for excellence. The world would have sounded very different without the contributions of our honorees."

A privately-held, family-owned American company, Shure Incorporated has been a world leader in audio electronics since its founding by S. N. Shure in 1925. Best known for microphones, both wired and wireless, they design and manufacture a wide variety of audio equipment -- from hi-fidelity phono cartridges to digital signal processors and wireless systems. They invented the first practical stereo phono cartridge, and the U.S. military selected their microphones for use in World War II tanks and airplanes. The quality and reliability of Shure products are legendary. Today, Shure continues the legacy of the SM58 vocal microphone and SM57 instrument microphone -- arguably the most-favored microphone used in studios worldwide -- with innovations like the KSM line of studio condenser microphones and ULX wireless systems. Shure products are routinely requested for some of the world's most high-profile live TV events, including the GRAMMY Awards, the Academy Awards, the Super Bowl, and the Olympics.

Three-time GRAMMY(R) winning engineer Geoff Emerick is perhaps best known as the engineer at Abbey Road Studios who worked on many of the Beatles' classic recordings, including the 1966 landmark Revolver, GRAMMY Album Of The Year winner Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, the "White Album" and Abbey Road. Being relatively new to the craft at the time of their first collaboration, Emerick was ideally suited to work with the groundbreaking quartet. He tapped into the potential of contemporary technology and expanded the horizons of studio recording. Emerick's adventurous spirit and experimental attitude, coupled with the revolutionary musical vision of the Beatles, forever changed the way in which pop albums are created.

The first Technical GRAMMY was awarded in 1994. Past winners include Robert Moog, Apple Computer, Les Paul, Digidesign's Pro Tools, Dr. Thomas Stockham Jr., Ray Dolby, Rupert Neve, George Massenburg, Sony/Philips, Georg Neumann GmbH, Bill Putnam, and AMS Neve, plc.

More than 5,000 professional producers, engineers, remixers and technologists comprise the Producers & Engineers Wing, whose mission is to provide an organized voice for the creative and technical recording community and address issues that affect the craft of recorded music, while ensuring its role in the development of new technologies, recording and mastering recommendations, and archiving and preservation initiatives. The Wing builds on the existing regional professional development activities of the Academy, which include workshops, forums and panel discussions. For more information about the P&E Wing, please visit www.grammy.com/pe_wing.

Established in 1957, the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, Inc., also known as the Recording Academy, is dedicated to improving the quality of life and cultural conditions for music and its makers. An organization of 18,000 musicians, producers and other recording professionals, the Recording Academy is internationally known for the GRAMMY Awards, and is responsible for numerous groundbreaking outreach, professional development, cultural enrichment, education and human services programs. For more information, please visit www.grammy.com.