Meet the new staff joining Abbey Road Institute
We’re excited to welcome three new members of staff to Abbey Road Institute: Polly Mackey, Jasper Dent and Nikolay Georgiev.
Each brings a distinct perspective from across music production, recording, sound design, engineering and education. With experience spanning award-winning film projects, internationally recognised artists, studio engineering, plug-in development, performance and research, they bring a wealth of real-world knowledge into the classroom.
Here’s a little more about the new members of the Abbey Road Institute team.
Polly Mackey
Polly Mackey is a producer, artist, engineer and academic. As Art School Girlfriend, she has established herself as a master of the sonic space that realises electronica through a songwriter and shoegazer perspective, with her third album Lean In containing an electronic-organic hybridity and unparalleled production born from time, expertise and a ‘studio of one’s own’. She has toured extensively across the UK, Europe and USA as well as appearing at festivals such as Field Day, SXSW, Latitude, Green Man and BBC 6Music Festival.
Originally from Wrexham, North Wales, Mackey moved to London in 2011 with her shoegaze band and threw herself into the vibrant East London music eco-system. In 2016, she began the solo electronica project that would see her sign to Paul Epworth’s label Wolf Tone (Universal). The Church Studios in Crouch End became her musical home and reignited her love for studio engineering. After a string of EPs, Mackey has now released three full-length records on Fiction Records and Domino Publishing.
Alongside her solo project, she has diverse involvement across the music scene at large – contributions to the work of Daniel Avery, Lane 8, Ghostpoet; being chosen by Bonobo to DJ at his Outliers series at Drumsheds and Mixmag Lab; touring the US with both The Japanese House and Marika Hackman; a notable DJ set for HOR; producing and engineering for up-and-coming post-rock band Pencil; the tastemaker curation of her 5-years-in-the-running monthly radio show on Foundation FM.
In 2019, Mackey began teaching music production after a series of guest lectures at Goldsmiths and ICMP. She now teaches production, studio engineering and sound design at UAL, ICMP and Abbey Road Institute with a particular interest in how technical knowledge can help unlock creativity. Her research explores generative ambient music, microsound, noise and how a sense of human-ness and intimacy can be created in digitally-made music.
Jasper Dent
Jasper Dent is an award-winning composer, sound designer and 2x platinum-awarded engineer working across film, TV, advertising and music. His most recent film project, Two Black Boys in Paradise, won a BAFTA this year. Jasper blends traditional composition with creative sound design to create unique and immersive sound worlds that help creatives tell stories.
Jasper started out as the main in-house engineer at Britannia Row Studios (Pink Floyd), where he worked until its closure in 2015. From there, he continued to work as a freelance producer, engineer and writer in the record industry, working out of some of London’s top studios including Abbey Road, Konk, Sarm, Miloco, Metropolis, Livingston, Masterchord and Wendyhouse.
Throughout his career, he has had the opportunity to work with an incredible range of artists and creatives, including Ed Sheeran, One Direction, Blur, The xx, London Grammar, Ella Henderson, Example, Little Mix, Samm Henshaw, Jacob Banks, Damon Albarn, The Osmonds, Kygo, Anna Calvi, Tinchy Stryder, Brian Blessed, Benga, aka RéY, Toploader, Charli XCX and Anaïs Mitchell, among many others.
During his time working in studios, Jasper was fortunate to work alongside some of the UK’s best producers, engineers and session musicians. Being immersed in this environment day in, day out allowed him to absorb as much musical knowledge and taste as possible, while developing the production techniques needed to work across different musical styles.
Having loved film all his life and with a passion for translating music and sound into emotion, it was only a matter of time before Jasper made the transition into writing for picture.
Scoring short films is where he honed his craft for telling stories through music. He now continues to do this across advertising, branding, theatre and library productions, while still working with artists in the record industry.
His credits include Sky, NOW TV, Cadbury, Disney, Sony, Universal, BBC, NBC, Channel 4, Channel 5, One 6th and Kino, among others.
Nikolay Georgiev
Nikolay Georgiev is a London-based engineer, producer, plug-in developer and experienced tutor and lecturer. In 2015, he was the National Chair of the UK Section of the Audio Engineering Society.
His particular expertise lies in recording on location, especially in spaces with unusual acoustics, using the space itself as part of the recording process. His credits include work with Taylor Hawkins, the Arditti String Quartet, Sylvia Massy, Riccardo Damian, Cameron Craig, Adrian Bushby and Hezen, amongst others, and he has engineered in leading studios including Abbey Road, RAK, Strongroom and The Church.
For more than a decade, Nik has also collaborated closely with Acustica Audio as a plug-in developer, contributing to a wide range of the company’s products, including Lime, Navy, Cream, Pink and SunGlow. In 2025, he teamed up with legendary engineer and console designer Malcolm Toft and Acustica Audio to develop Aubergine, a channel-strip plug-in inspired by Malcolm’s analogue heritage and classic British console designs.
Nik also represents Antelope Audio in the UK, running its local business and working closely with the company’s CEO and R&D team on the development of hardware, software and audio effects.
Education has been an important part of Nik’s career for many years. He works as a tutor and lecturer and regularly takes part in industry panels, talks and international educational events.
Nik holds a First-Class Honours degree in Philosophy, as well as a diploma in Audio Engineering.
Bringing industry experience into the classroom
From recording and music production to composition, sound design, audio technology and research, Polly, Jasper and Nikolay each bring a different area of expertise to Abbey Road Institute.
Their careers reflect the increasingly diverse range of opportunities available within the modern audio industry and their experience working across music, film, technology and education will give students the opportunity to learn from professionals actively working in the field.
We’re delighted to welcome Polly, Jasper and Nikolay to Abbey Road Institute.
