Meet The Staff

Though it began as Michael Connolly’s singlehanded labor of love, the Empty Sea family has since grown a bit!  More than 130 concerts and 20 recording projects later, the studio now employs a small, scrappy staff to help share the workload.

Michael Connolly - owner, principal engineer

I work as a performer, teacher, and audio engineer. I’m originally from Memphis Tennessee, and spent some time living in the Midwest before coming to Seattle about 6 years ago. Although I long ago played in funk and rock bands in Memphis, my primary interest over the past 12 years or so has been playing, teaching, and recording acoustic music.

I started Empty Sea for a couple of reasons: to create a recording studio equipped to handle my engineering and production work, and to provide Seattle with a real “listening room” for acoustic music, something that felt absent in this city until now.

I teach fiddle and mandolin, and perform on a number of other instruments including accordion, Hammond organ, piano, guitar, uilleann pipes, and others. In terms of hands-on experience, I have been engineering multitrack recordings for around 14 years. I’ve done orchestral “hall” recording as well as work with singer-songwriters, folk musicians, a cappella, jazz, indie, and Americana / roots artists. I also work as a producer, shepherding folks through the recording process from song selection to arrangement, instrumentation, selecting and coaching session musicians, and working with disc manufacturers.

My experience is heavily informed on the aesthetic side from having been a musician in a number of genres including classical, jazz, folk, Irish traditional, and bluegrass music, and on the technical side from my education as an electrical and computer engineer from the University of Michigan.

To get a taste of some projects I’ve worked on, you can view a selected discography here.

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Jordan Cunningham – studio manager, staff engineer

My work at Empty Sea consists of both live sound engineering and recording/mixing. I am from a small town in the mountains of California but moved to the northwest after college and my internship at Prairie Sun Studios in the San Francisco bay area.

I am an active musician in my professional life and in my personal time. I play guitar, mandolin, percussion and other various string instruments in an eclectic mix of genres. My love for music as a lifestyle and a career has been accentuated by the opportunity to work with Michael Connolly.  Empty Sea is a gem among modern facilities, one that cares for the essence of sound and how it is delivered.

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Katty Rowenhorst – promotions & media relations director

Originally from the Midwest, I gave up the comforts of home-cooked hotdish meals to go to college in Seattle.  I spent my college years taking communication courses and working in various positions at the campus radio station, which grew in me the passion for the music industry.  I was given the opportunity to work closely with artists, explore the world of website editing, host a weekly DJ show and more.  After graduation, I took an internship with the Showbox venues and was presented with the opportunity to learn skills such as marketing and promotional work that goes on behind-the-scenes for music venues.

As an enthusiast for live music, I have always been drawn to the idea that music events bring community together.  I love that I have the freedom and opportunity to be a part of that at Empty Sea Studios as Promotions & Media Relations Director and I hope to help grow awareness of the venue both in Seattle and beyond.