A Grammy Award is just a dream for most musicians and those who support them. Even a nomination for the music industry’s most prestigious recognition is sure to be noted on artist resumes and recounted in their obituaries.
Since 2018, University of Oklahoma School of Music lecturer Christina Giacona and collaborator-partner Patrick Conlon at their Onyx Lane Company have been members of the Recording Academy that hosts the Grammys. They’re experts at music composition, recording, producing and mixing for film scores and classical ensembles.
The two have been recording Oklahoma musicians for the past decade and they have golden ears when it comes to Grammys. Giacona and Conlon worked on the 2023 Grammy winner for Best Classical Compendium titled “An Adoption Story” which included Edmond artist Kitt Wakeley. They were part of the team for another Grammy nominated record in 2024 on harpist Kirsten Agresta-Copely’s “Aquamarine” in the New Age, Ambient or Chant category. Giacona and Conlon recorded Oklahoma cellist Tess Remy-Schumacher’s passages for the album. They’ve refined a winning aural formula but acknowledge that some luck is involved.
“The thing with Grammy nominations and Grammy awards is that there are so many amazing projects out there,” Giacona said. “It’s like winning the lottery to get a nomination. I think it’s just dedication to the craft. Everybody who wins does have dedication to the music they’re recording, wherever they are in the spectrum of the project.”
They didn’t win a 2024 Grammy but enjoyed a grand time networking and reconnecting with friends at the various events on the West Coast associated with the awards.
When Giacona takes on these endeavors with client musicians it requires all her attention.
“I dream about that project and think about it when I’m drinking my morning coffee,” she said. “It’s never just go into the studio and think, oh that’s good enough. You can’t start a project with the hope you’ll get a nomination or win a Grammy. You go in with the expectation that you’ll create the best product possible. If that translates into winning awards, then amazing. But that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re successful or that your project’s good. There are so many we worked on that didn’t get a nomination even when they’re incredible. Everybody who has worked for us comes back for more. We walk clients through every step of the process and have the experience to do this.”
Onyx Lane records their clients’ music at the Academy of Contemporary Music-University of Central Oklahoma, OKC’s Civic Center, OU’s Paul F. Sharp concert hall and in a residential studio.
“Our mix and master studio is in our extra bedroom,” she said.
Giacona is a Smithsonian Folkways-certified World Music Pedagogue. She’s an expert on the Native sonic traditions across our continent who wrote textbook “The Indigenous Music of Turtle Island: Native American Music in North America.” Giacona’s musical instrument is licorice stick and she holds the Janice and Allyn Donaubauer Clarinet Chair with the Fort Smith Symphony. She’s researching long-neglected OU archives of Oklahoma composer Jack Frederick Kilpatrick (Cherokee, 1915-1967). Giacona brings a wealth of knowledge to her OU students along with being personable, charming and hip to the metro music scene from rap and rock to classical.
“I feel like the music industry is about mentorship,” she said. “Because people who mentor are going to go on and teach their techniques and recording philosophies. Every student that I teach at the University of Oklahoma, I have the idea that I’m going to mentor them through what their goals are. Here I teach ethnomusicology courses. When film projects come through Oklahoma a lot of times I’ll be consulting with them for Native American music. What they can and cannot use and who they should hire. Also, we’re hoping to start a commercial music minor in the next year or so and I’ve been helping craft that.”
Giacona’s work was recently featured in the Netflix premiered movie “Montford: The Chickasaw Rancher” based on history in these immediate parts.
“I have students who come to me and say I want to do what you do,” she said. “I mentor them and they can be interns at Onyx Lane. The professors here at OU are amazing. I work with them here and also on recording projects outside the university.”
“Celtic Woman” is one of those whose 20th anniversary album drops early this year.
“Thirty or more of the people associated with that project are somehow associated with OU,” Giacona said. “Our School of Music director Jonathan Nichol is very supportive of faculty having creative projects. He’s passionate about the things I’m doing and encouraging.”
Giacona and collaborator Conlon’s personal creative outlet presently is called Cube of Light. Their self-titled full length album was reviewed glowingly by David Dickinson at the Make Oklahoma Weirder website. “To listen to Cube of Light is to experience the path of artistry, walking among stars and dreaming of the surreal, and all of it is driven solely by the simple sentiment – I just want to create.”
Giacona is a certified over-achiever who holds two doctoral degrees. She’s from Santa Monica, California and is former executive director of and clarinetist for the Los Angeles New Music Ensemble. She unequivocally digs Oklahoma.
“I love it,” Giacona said. “Everybody asks me why I live here. I tell them I paid off my house, there’s nearly no traffic compared to L.A., I know everybody on the scene. If someone asks if I know a bagpiper or professional harmonica player, the answer is yes, this is the guy you go to. We’ve created something really special.”
Obviously Giacona is open to the world’s opportunities but she genuinely likes life and work on red dirt.
“I don’t necessarily see myself leaving Oklahoma,” she said.