Dani García’s online master’s at dBs Institute inspired her to open Latin America’s first female-led Dolby Atmos studio with her sisters Pao and María. Learn more about her story here.
At dBs Institute, we encourage our students to be innovators, leaders, and groundbreakers. We emphasize the importance of exploring the boundaries of their creative practice and pioneering new ideas throughout our curriculum, and we love it when we hear of students and alumni being the ‘first’ to do something!
So, when we heard that Online MA Music Production alumni Dani García had started Latin America’s first female-led Dolby Atmos studio, we were thrilled and needed to find out more. Read on to learn more about her journey and how dBs Institute helped her get there.
Study a Music Production Postgraduate Degree at dBs Institute.
Dani’s audio engineering journey
Dani García, alongside her sisters Pao and María, own and run Ejekalistli, a Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision post-production studio based in Mexico City. However, years before she gained an interest in engineering, Dani studied piano and opera singing in her homeland of Mexico and abroad in Italy before a medical emergency completely changed her life.
“When I was in Italy, doctors detected two deformed vertebras in my spine,” says Dani. “I started losing mobility, so I came back to Mexico to do my rehabilitation. The specialist told me that I couldn't sing or play the piano anymore because my spine wasn't strong enough to stay in the playing position at the piano or stand the pressure of singing opera.”
Devastated by being unable to sing or play piano professionally, Dani thought about studying the history of art or fine art, but she couldn’t shake her passion and devotion to music. She knew she wanted to stay in that world in some shape or form.
“I couldn't do classical music anymore,” she says, “So I started studying audio engineering and music production here in Mexico at Tecnológico de Monterrey. The first semester studying music production and audio engineering, I was in denial every day. I was like, ‘Why is this happening to me? Why can't I sing? Why can't I play the piano?’ I even stopped listening to classical music. Emotionally, I wasn't able to handle it.”
“Some of the doctors said that I wasn't going to be able to walk anymore because my spine was damaging my central nervous system,” Dani explains. “There were two ways to look at it: 'Why is this happening to me?’ Or ‘I am really glad I can still move my hands and I can walk.’ I chose to look at the bright side of the situation; against all of the diagnoses that the doctors gave me, I could still move. The first semester of my studies, I hated it. I wanted to be in the conservatoire, but then I realised that even though I couldn't sing opera or play the piano professionally anymore, I could still be close to music, and audio engineering allowed me to do that. I thought, ‘Maybe I am fortunate to still be walking and I can still be close to music.’”
Starting Latin America’s first female-led Dolby Studio
After completing her degree at Tecnológico de Monterrey, Dani joined dBs Institute from her home in Mexico as part of our dBs Online programme. Learning advanced music production skills, expanding her knowledge and, crucially, learning entrepreneurial skills at dBs, studying here was a foundational moment in the creation of Ejekalistli.
Alongside the desire to work with her sisters, pursuing her aim of remaining in the music industry and using the skills and knowledge learnt at dBs, Dani, Pao and María, who studied Filmmaking and Visual Arts respectively, built their studio from scratch in the Santa Fe district of the Mexican capital.
“Starting Ejekalistli was a pretty sudden idea. It was not something I've been planning for ages,” says Dani. “I have two younger sisters who moved to Canada, and I moved to Mexico City. I was here all alone. I think, in some way, I was trying to convince them to come back… I was doing this module with Chris Page, ‘Electronic Music Enterprise’. He was talking about how to make money from what we know; I could teach singing, or do mixing or mastering. At that moment, I thought, 'I can merge my skills with what my sister does in cinema.'”
Taking the seed of that idea, Dani went to the ‘sound:check Xpo’ in Mexico, where she ran into her former professors who are now building Dolby Atmos studios across Latin America. Building on the seed of the idea that Chris Page and her studies at dBs had planted, her old professors convinced Dani that she and her sisters should start a studio in Mexico City, where Dani would drive the Dolby Atmos projects and Pao and María would focus on Dolby Vision. Starting the building process on July 1st 2024, the García sisters finished the process in early October 2024 and are now working with clients locally and internationally. Best of all, they are breaking new ground as the first female-led studio in the region.
“The Dolby Atmos offices in Brazil told us that ours was the first Dolby Atmos studio in Latin America led only by women,” says Dani. “We are very happy about that. I think it's great. The percentage of women sound engineers is really, really small, so I think this is a great step.”
How studying MA Music Production at dBs Institute helped Dani’s career
Studying her online master’s at dBs Institute was a vital step in Dani’s journey, with the quality of the teaching pushing her to “raise her standards.”
“When I was in the conservatoire in Italy,” says Dani, “The school was way more strict than here in Mexico. dBs Institute is the same. Studying at dBs has helped me raise my standards. Schools in Europe are more strict, and that has helped me grow as a student and a professional. I have learnt what I should do and what I shouldn’t do. My growth here has been significant. Raising my standards has opened the door to working with bigger artists and doing a better job. Here, I have learnt how the real world works.”
Although working from a different timezone was challenging and led to some very early morning sessions for Dani, “the staff were always willing to help me and to find a time that works for me and them. They were always really responsive with the emails, and if I went through something personal or emotional, they would help me.”
We can’t wait to see how Ejekalistli develops and how the dBs community continues to expand globally.
Want to follow in Dani’s footsteps? Check out our courses, including dBs Online, on our website or at our next Open Day!
