Bergen Community College

Bergen Community College adjunct professor of music technology and sound instructor Jonathan Appell has had an unusually diverse career as a music producer and audio engineer.

“I’ve been passionate about audio engineering, and music production since I was a child,” he said.

Appell’s work can be heard on TV shows, such as Ed and The Dana Carvey Show, movies, such as First Wives Club and Coyote Ugly, anime cartoons like Gokusen & Shura No Toki, and hundreds of television and radio commercials. Legendary artists including Carole King, Bette Midler and Grover Washington, Jr. have used Appell’s work in their recordings.

A voting member of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (NARAS) and an active member of the Audio Engineering Society (AES), Appell is an AVID-certified Pro Tools instructor.

Appell has been teaching since 2006. “I love helping students plot their course in life,” he said. “I think students sense my natural enthusiasm for the topic and find my passion for it relatable.”

Appell recently delivered a featured presentation at Abbey Road Studios, one of the most iconic and historic recording studios in the world. He joined a select group of internationally recognized audio educators to discuss innovations in remote audio collaboration and instruction, using LISTENTO, a real-time audio streaming platform developed by Audiomovers, a company owned by Abbey Road Studios.

At Abbey Road, Appell presented his reflections on the project and offered actionable strategies for integrating LISTENTO into classroom and lab environments. His talk emphasized the software’s potential to enrich audio education by enabling high-fidelity collaboration, remote mix critiques, and advanced signal routing exercises—even in schools with limited physical resources.

“Events like this remind us that we are all lifelong learners,” said Appell. “As educators, it’s our responsibility to stay ahead of technological trends so we can prepare students for the realities of today’s audio industry. LISTENTO is a tool that brings the professional world directly into the classroom.”

The event brought together leading educators and engineers from across the globe to share practical insights into how LISTENTO is transforming modern audio education. Appell’s invitation followed his participation in an international live demonstration of LISTENTO’s capabilities earlier this summer.

On June 29, 2025, a live performance at Omega Studios in Rockville, Maryland was transmitted via LISTENTO to six acclaimed professors and audio engineers across North and South America—including Appell. Each educator received the multitrack audio in real time, recorded it locally, created their own stereo mix, and then re-transmitted those mixes to students around the world.

“Students had the opportunity to compare multiple professional mixes of the same session in real time,” said Appell. “It was a powerful exercise in developing critical listening, artistic judgment, and audio analysis skills.”

Appell’s contribution emphasized Bergen’s growing influence in the field of applied audio education, and the College’s commitment to integrating industry-standard tools into the curriculum.

“When the opportunity to teach at Bergen came up in 2022, I eagerly accepted the role,” he said. “We have a wonderful faculty at Bergen and I’m proud to be counted among them.”

“I love the people at Bergen,” he said. “The faculty really cares about the students.”

Based in Paramus, Bergen Community College (www.bergen.edu), a public two-year coeducational college, enrolls more than 24,000 students at locations in Paramus, the Philip Ciarco Jr. Learning Center in Hackensack and Bergen Community College at the Meadowlands in Lyndhurst. The College offers associate degree, certificate and continuing education programs in a variety of fields. More students graduate from Bergen than any other community college in the state.

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