Staff
Denise Barbarita ~ Owner/Head Engineer/Educator
Denise Barbarita is a 3x Grammy award winning Engineer/Mixer.
She is the owner and head engineer of MONOLisa Studios.
Over the past 20+ years, Denise has worked on a variety of music productions, across many genres, working with independent artists and major clients alike.
Her clients include Sony Masterworks, EMI, Koch Records, Nonesuch, Razor & Tie, KonceptVR, Movers & Shakers, and organizations such as The New York Film Academy, and MOMA.
Denise also works with film producers and directors creating soundtracks (music composition, sound design, foley, ADR and mixing) for feature films, documentaries, trailers, and commercials.
Rich Kulsar ~ Co-Owner/Professional Drummer/Educator
Rich Kulsar - Co-Owner and Resident Drum Guru at MONOLisa Studios. Rich is available for your Session as a drummer or can answer all your questions regarding the drums we have available for your Session. A drummer in NYC since 1991, Rich has played with many Artists across many genres. For more info, please visit Rich Kulsar dot com.
Old school professionalism at an indie price point
Raymond Bonanno ~ 1st Assistant
Ray has been with the family at MONOLisa since 2013. Starting out as a student of Denise’s at the County College of Morris, he became a helping hand in the construction of MONOLisa’s first commercial space and
from there on he worked numerous sessions as an intern and quickly became an Assistant Engineer.
Outside of the studio Ray performs in two Mathrock bands.
He is currently the drummer/lead vocalist and co-writer for Use Big Words, and the bassist and background vocalist for Invalids.
He also serves as a recording engineer/mixer for both projects.
Tyler Thompson ~ 2nd Assistant
Tyler Is a multi-instrumentalist and engineer who graduated from the County College of Morris in 2020. His relationship with Denise grew throughout his college career until he finally joined the MONOLisa crew. He completed his internship and became an assistant soon thereafter.
He began playing the bass at age 11, and the rest was history. Music was an integral part of his life from then on. Since starting electric bass, he's learned guitar, taken lessons in upright bass, and is honing his chops on drums. Through the years he has played with several bands ranging from punk, to funk, to progressive rock.
Since beginning his professional career he has produced, recorded, and mixed several EP's and singles for local bands; as well as numerous of his own projects. He hopes to continue on to be a recording/mix engineer and own his own studio space.
Tyler is proficient in ProTools, as well as many state of the art plugin suites such as, Slate audio, iZotope, Waves, and many others. He is currently working on becoming proficient in Reaper.
All photos by: Brian T Silak