Kosta Cross

Full Bio:    Kosta embarked on his musical journey at the tender age of three, commencing his classical piano training at the prestigious Tchaikovsky School of Music. He inherited his passion for music from his grandfather, the director of the music school, and his father, who was a keyboardist in early rock bands. As he delved deeper into the world of music, Kosta's fascination with electronic instruments, including Moog, EMS, and Crumar, began to flourish.      In the early 1980s, Kosta's dedication led him to Music State College, where he pursued a Master's Degree in conducting and the composition of contemporary classical pieces influenced by luminaries like Alfred Schnittke, Edison Denisov, as well as early 20th-century impressionists such as Claude Debussy and Witold Lutosławski. His time at the college also allowed him to witness performances by pioneering musicians such as Leon Theremin and Karlheinz Stockhausen, leaving an indelible mark on his creative path for the past three decades.      During the mid to late 1980s, with the advent of glasnost and the rise of Gorbachev's leadership, musicians from Eastern Europe gained the opportunity to venture beyond the Iron Curtain. Kosta was an active member of various bands, including Nikolay Kopernik, Alliance (Aljians), and Inna Zhelannaya. This new era of openness opened doors for Kosta and his fellow musicians to tour with and open for prominent new-wave and post-punk acts like Big Country, Sonic Youth, Sugar Cubes, and Everything But the Girl. They also participated in grand-scale music events, including the Moscow Music Peace Festival in 1989 and Greenpeace Breakthrough in the same year.      In early 1991, Kosta made the significant move to the United States, where he spent most of the decade reconstructing his reputation as an audio production specialist and session musician in New York, San Diego, and Los Angeles. During this period, he found his creative niche in the burgeoning experimental music scene, collaborating with a diverse array of artists and acts, including Psychic TV, Hall, Tugruvu, Anna Homler, Drowning Pool (LA), Cleopatra Records, and others.      In 1998, Kosta relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area, where he joined the Pro Tools engineering team at Digidesign/Avid. His work there contributed to the development of key products that garnered TEC Grammy and Oscar awards for innovation in the audio industry. While at AVID, Kosta had the privilege of learning from world-renowned mixing and mastering engineers, such as Andrew Scheps, Tony Maserati, Dylan Dresdow "3-D," Michael Romanowski, and others. His journey continued after leaving the AVID family in late 2016, as he dedicated the following five years to groundbreaking work with Antares Audio Technologies, the creators of Auto-Tune.