Last Word with Josh Antonuccio

Josh Antonuccio, BSC ’96, MED ’17, is an associate professor, director of the School of Media Arts & Studies and a polymath of the music industry. In addition to serving as director of the Ohio University Music Industry Summit and faculty advisor of student organizations Brick City Records and Women in the Music Industry, he is a music producer and independent recording artist, produces and hosts The Sycamore Sessions at the Nelsonville Music Festival, and has designed several industry immersion courses in the Scripps College of Communication.  He also is a Grammy-voting member of the Recording Academy and a board member of Stuart’s Opera House.

What made you want to pursue a career in music?

I became totally captivated with music from an early age, and that passion just took me all the way up through playing in bands in high school, in college, and just wanting to be around that world. I had a family friend who was one of the biggest concert promoters in Pittsburgh, so by the time I got to college, I'd easily been to more than 100 concerts. It was just my whole world.

How did you end up at Ohio University?

I received a random postcard in my mailbox to apply to OHIO, so I applied and got in. Then my dad and I were traveling across the state to look at another institution, and we were like, well, let's just stop in and see what Ohio University is. Of course, I totally fell in love with it.

I came back to Athens in 2002 to work at a recording studio, which I ended up running and owning—that led to many years of producing myriad bands and artists. So that was my professional life. I got invited to start adjuncting at OHIO alongside my studio work in 2009, and that's where it started. I came on full-time in 2013 in the music production and recording industry major.

You’ve developed several experiential learning programs. How did they come about?

For South by Southwest, one of the artists that I produced played a label showcase in 2010, and I went down and performed with them. That was the first time I'd been to South By, and I knew it would make an amazing student experience—not just the learning opportunities, but the networking and the whole environment.

Nelsonville Music Festival was a partnership developed in 2014 with festival director Tim Peacock. I was really thinking about a collaborative experience where students could learn how to produce live performances, but also where we could release content highlighting the festival and promoting artists. We’ve now done over 150 episodes, with a roster of amazing artists including Tyler Childers, Adrienne Lenker of Big Thief and Sierra Ferrell, to name a few.

The Music Production Masterclass Series classes were about trying to find studio partners that would want to work with small groups of students in a very intensive, more apprentice-like environment. We now do two Masterclasses a year, in different cities at major studios.

What about the Music Industry Summit?

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It started in 2018. My colleague Paul Mass, who at that time was the director of the Center for Entrepreneurship, is an amazing entrepreneur and amazing person, as well as a big music lover. He wanted to do a panel, originally, just as a one-off thing with leaders in the Midwest in the music industry, and asked if I’d like to partner with him on it. I said, absolutely! So I hosted that panel.

That was officially our first year, and it was just an evening. We had four people on that panel, all from Ohio. We had a great turnout from people traveling in from as far away as Columbus that night. Reflecting on that, I thought, well, I think we could pull something off that's in the same lane as South By, where we could attract major artists and industry leaders here to campus and build a conference. We’ve now grown into a three-day event.

And our operational team has expanded since then. We have our core group of people—about six or seven of us—probably twice as many students who assist in planning the event, and then an additional 40 students who run the conference and the associated production on the ground. This [2025] was our seventh year, and our biggest yet; watching an icon like DJ Premier perform at this year’s opening party was mind-blowing. We’ve now grown to become the biggest music conference in the Midwest and have welcomed scores of major artists to campus including Jason Isbell, Earl Sweatshirt, Phoebe Bridgers, FINNEAS and Caamp. In 2022, Soundfly named us one of the seven essential music conferences in the U.S.  

Your career has led you to work with a huge number of artists. Is there an experience that stands out as most exciting (so far, anyway)?

One really cool thing is that one of my college friends, Bo Koster [AB ‘96], the keyboardist for the band My Morning Jacket, was just here for a Music Industry Summit event. He invited me to come up to the Newport Folk Festival in 2015 because My Morning Jacket was going to secretly back up Roger Waters of Pink Floyd for a special set.

Growing up, Pink Floyd was one of the most important bands to me. After the show, I got a chance to meet Roger Waters very briefly. It was a special moment: getting to meet someone whose songwriting and music had meant so much was a really meaningful, full-circle experience.

What do you like to do in your downtime?

Making music is huge for me. I have a new project that I started called Swanpalace, and we just put out an album in May. Writing and recording music and the creative life is a big priority. I also love hiking; it’s a major passion. I love exploring National Parks and checking off areas to explore from my list.

What’s your favorite National Park that you've been to?

I’m going to say Zion, because we got into the lottery to hike Angel's Landing, which is one of the craziest hikes in the United States. The last half-mile is a sheer drop-off on either side, thousands of feet down, and you're literally holding onto a chain and just walking up a narrow boulder path to the top. The view from the top is breathtaking, extraordinary.

You have a big interest in artificial intelligence as a tool for media industries. What role do you think AI has in music, and how have you integrated it into your teaching?

I’ve heard this stated in different forms and I think it’s mostly true: Pure AI won’t take away people’s jobs; those who know how to use AI will get hired over those who don’t. And that reality is translating down to the creative industries. It’s not for me to say whether it’s right or wrong to integrate AI into your creative process. But the fact is that AI is transforming the way we work, so I think it’s vital for students to learn this technology as they navigate their careers.

What’s your favorite thing about working with students?

I love the collaborative process of teaching. I love the energy and the way that students will take ideas or engagement and get it—that they can do a thing, and they can do it well. I like being the facilitator to empower students to find their passion, their voice. It’s great watching them take off, both here and certainly beyond.

Feature photo by Ben Wirtz Siegel, BSVC ’02