Rich
Wenzel l
Matt Pavolotis
l
Paul
Hollman
l
Ken Givens
Rich Wenzel
The founder and owner of Ardent Audio Productions,
Rich Wenzel is an accomplished musician, producer
and engineer with over 30 years experience in the
music industry.
Rich studied music at the University of California
Long Beach. He begun his career in the late 60's
touring LA venues with his first band opening for
acts like The Doors, Van Morrison, and Frank Zappa.
After several years as a music instructor at the
Peninsula Academy of Music as well as Lamarca Music
in Torrance, Rich returned to touring.
For the next decade he played with various LA and
Las Vegas show bands, toured the United States and
recorded several albums. Then it was off to sea on
the Love Boat and several other cruise ships where
he was an on-board band-leader. Later Rich continued
to play around the world for international Stars
Viki Carr, Friends of Distinction and Cecilio &
Kapono.
After completing his touring career in major
stadiums across the country for acts like The Beach
Boys, Dave Mason and Jazz/Rock Flutist Tim Weisberg,
Rich took a consulting position for another decade
at Yamaha Music corporation and Kawaii USA where he
honed his skills as an audio engineer.
Since opening Ardent Audio Productions in 1989, Rich
has continued to tour and record as a top studio
musician and has always kept up-to-date with the
latest trends in musical styles, instruments,
recording techniques and computer sequencing.
At Ardent, Rich has worked as producer, arranger and
engineer for literally hundreds of clients whose
CD's have been distributed around the globe.
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Matt Pavolotis
Matt brings 12 years of unique audio experience to
Ardent. He is an expert with ProTools, Efx mixing &
augmentation, sound design, film sweetening and
format conversion. He has worked for some of the
biggest audio, film and television production
companies in Los Angeles and has recording, mixing
and sound design credits in numerous Hollywood
productions. These include re-releases of film
classics like Mary Poppins (Disney) and The Way We
Were (Columbia Tristar) as well as current hit shows
like Law & Order (Universal), Home Improvement
(Universal), and Felicity (BVI).
Matt obtained a Bachelor of Music Performance with
an Emphasis in Sound Recording Technology from the
University of Massachusetts.
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Paul Hollman
A graduate of Brown University's Theory and Jazz
History program, Paul Hollman is a top-notch
composer, producer, engineer, sound designer and
sequencing specialist.
He has worked with several top labels and studios
including Arista, Warner Brothers Online, MTV,
Moonshine Records and Media Ventures (Hans Zimmer's
studio) to name a few.
Paul is an accomplished pianist, Guitarist, bassist,
and saxophone player. He is also highly capable in
music-production programs such as Pro Tools,
StudioVision, Logic, Reason, Acid and GigaStudio
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Ken Givens
If you can hear you've probably already heard the
work of Ken Givens! As a composer, arranger, sound
designer and MIDI programmer he has worked with
notable industry names and corporate clients such as
Dick Clark, Jack Morton Productions, Apple Computer,
Mazda Motor of America, Coldwell Banker, National
Semi Conductor and Toshiba.
Ken has been the musical backbone of various film,
television and even interactive gaming projects and
even wrote the original music for various radio
spots featuring the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in
Salt Lake City.
