SoundGirls Podcast

Elyssa Kohen: Touring Audio Engineer

Elyssa Kohen grew up in Las Vegas, Nevada. She graduated from the prestigious Las Vegas Academy for Performing Arts before attending the University of North Carolina School of the Arts where she received her BFA in Theatre Design and Production-Sound Design. She quickly put her degree to use by going to work for the MUNY in St. Louis, starting as an intern in 2013 and returning as the Assistant Sound Designer in 2015. When the season ended, she collaborated as a Sound/Mixing Engineer with several organizations including the Alliance Theater, Merry-Go-Round Playhouse (now The REV), and Ogunquit Playhouse. 

In late December of 2016, Elyssa began her touring career, joining Motown the Musical 2nd National Tour as Assistant Audio. Shortly thereafter she jumped onboard with the School of Rock 1st National Tour. In 2017/2018 she was fortunate to tour both nationally and internationally with the Rent 20th Anniversary Tour, traveling to China and Japan. 

In the summer of 2019, she was chosen to be the Assistant Audio for Frozen the Broadway Musical 1st National Tour. The pandemic caused Frozen to be shut down in March of 2020 in Portland, Oregon and Elyssa found herself back in Las Vegas. After 15 months of inactivity behind a soundboard, she got the chance to mix shows again as she went to work for The Glimmerglass Festival in June of 2021. 

As of August 2021, Elyssa is back to work on Frozen, the Broadway Musical.

Ebonie Smith: award-winning music producer, audio engineer and singer-songwriter

Ebonie Smith is an award-winning music producer, audio engineer and singer-songwriter based in New York City. Ebonie is also the founder and president of Gender Amplified, Inc., an organization that celebrates and supports women and girls in music production and audio engineering. Ebonie received her first Grammy Certificate and RIAA-certified platinum plaque for work as an assistant engineer on Hamilton (Original Broadway Cast Recording). She received her second Grammy Certificate for work as an assistant engineer on Sturgill Simpson's award-winning album A Sailor's Guide to Earth. She also engineered on the Grammy-nominated album Dirty Computer by Janelle Monáe and the Grammy-winning album Invasion to Privacy by Cardi B.

In 2017, Ebonie was nominated for a Pensado Award in the category of "Best Break Thru Mixing Engineer." She currently works as an engineer, producer and studio coordinator for Atlantic Records. She is also an elected governor of the New York Chapter of The Recording Academy and member of the Producers & Engineers Wing. 

Ebonie holds a master's degree in Music Technology from New York University and a bachelor's degree in Africana Studies from Barnard College, Columbia University. While in college, Ebonie received training at Columbia University's Computer Music Center and studied abroad in the West African nation of Cameroon. During her 5-month stay there, she performed with bands, worked in studios and produced local artists.

Ebonie has recorded, engineered and/or produced for: Charlie Puth, Ms. Lauryn Hill, The Roots, Janelle Monáe, Jimmy Fallon, Zoe Kravitz, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Kodak Black, D.R.A.M., Adia Victoria, Ben Platt, Kat Deluna, Morton Subotnick, Sabrina Claudio, Clean Bandit, Anne-Marie,
MNEK, T-Minus, Scott Harris, Niia, Jaymes Young, Yemi Alade, Sarah Close, SWMRS, Sturgill Simpson, Santigold, Marina and the Diamonds, the Grammy Award-winning Hamilton Original Broadway Cast Recording, Firekid, Toyboy & Robin, Kaleo, Kamau, Phony Ppl, Joell Ortiz, Black
Thought, Dave Cobb, Wale, Tigertown, Christina Perri, Dana Parish, Corey Chorus, Madison Love, Ingrid Michaelson, Sean C and LV, Jon Batiste, Rhiannon Giddens, Out Came The Wolves, Finish Ticket, James TW, The Front Bottoms, Panic! At The Disco, Louis Cato, Shooter Jennings, Brent Cobb, Ledinsky, Icona Pop, Chris Miles, The Moth and the Flame, Melanie Martinez, Birdy, Francesco Yates, King 810, Chef’Special, Brett Dennen, Cash Cash, Max Frost, Halestorm, Katy Tiz,
Christine & The Queens, Theory of a Deadman, Anderson East, Jasmine Thompson, Action Bronson, Straight No Chaser, Jake Troth, Jacquie Lee, Amadeus, A R I Z O N A, !llmind and many more!

Michelle Levitt: Musician, Artist, Marketing Director for Heil Sound, & CEO of her own podcast studio

Michelle Levitt has been a musician, an artist, and the CEO of her own podcast studio. She is the Marketing Director for Heil Sound and has worked there for 17 years. They make world-class microphones for stage, studio, podcast, and broadcast.

Olga FitzRoy: recording engineer & mixer

Olga FitzRoy is a recording engineer and mixer. After a decade working her way up the ranks at AIR Studios, from tea-girl to mixing the music for the 2012 Olympics, she is now freelance, working on projects for Coldplay and mixing the music for The Crown. She was named Recording Engineer of the Year at the MPG awards 2016 and received an Ivors Academy Gold Badge Award in 2019. She was elected to the board of the UK Music Producers Guild (MPG) in 2019. After having her son, she founded the #SelfieLeave campaign, which aims to support freelance women when they have children, by campaigning for self-employed families to get shared parental leave. As a result of her lobbying, a bill was read in parliament and the government began a consultation on a change in the law. She was named no.11 in the BBC Woman’s Hour Powerlist 2018 and won the Women In Music Campaigner of the Year award in 2019. She ran for parliament for the Labour Party in 2019 and has spent much of the pandemic campaigning for better support for those affected by the crisis, particularly engineers, producers, and recording studios. As a volunteer for the charity Pregnant Then Screwed, she led their campaign against mothers who have previously taken maternity leave receiving reduced COVID-support from the government. The result of this work is currently awaiting judgment in the Court of Appeal. She lives in London with her husband and 5-year-old son.

 

Juno Black: audiovisual technology production expert

   With a background in music composition, engineering, and events production, Juno’s curiosity has led her to venture into new and advanced audiovisual technologies. With consistent experience in managing entertainment and creative projects, Juno can organize, budget, staff, coordinate, and deliver projects in a timely fashion.

   Pioneering digital mixing in Live events made her engineering and system design skills to be in high demand. After moving to the U.S. in 2000, she produced, engineered, and coordinated events for clients like MJ Audio, WGBH, Harvard University, Mass concerts, and The Cambridge Multicultural art Center, among many others.  

   As a co-founder of Moana productions, she managed and produced commercial, industrial, and film projects, with an emphasis on live multi-cam, multi-track music concert production with clients like Univision, Tribeca film festival, Greenwich Village Entertainment, MTV, and Fuse. Since 2005 She worked in production coordination and sound engineering in venues like the Highline Ballroom, Webster Hall, and the Manhattan center.

   She currently runs Juno Black Music, a consulting/integration practice. One of the highlights in her work in this area was managing the iconic One World Theatre refurbishing. She spends her spare time composing original music, recording, and managing multimedia projects. She has extensive knowledge in new technologies like Immersive Audio, VR/AR, and advanced Audiovisual workflows.

Petra Randewijk: Netherlands-based independent sound engineer

Petra Randewijk is an independent sound engineer from the Netherlands. She has been working in sound for over 20 years, mostly in live sound. Last year she toured in Europe, the UK and North America with Imogen Heap as FOH engineer and PM. When she is home she works at shows in Doornroosje in Nijmegen, and at some of the many Dutch festivals with awesome artists. Or for any other show that consists of good music, nice people, a technical challenge, or, even better, all three.

Recording has always been quite a passion project for Petra, which she does mostly at her own studio. After taking a week-long seminar with Sylvia Massy, she got inspired to make her recording sessions more adventurous which resulted in a lot of exciting recording sessions, and still more to come.

Alicia Martin: touring audio engineer

Alicia is a former band director turned touring audio person. She mostly works on the roving versions of Broadway shows, and can't wait for the pandemic to end so we all can run around and make art again. In the forced "free time" of COVID-19, she has completed all but one class in macroeconomics on a double major AS degree in accounting and business administration to go with her prior degrees in Music Education and Show Production and Touring. She's also learning welding, plumbing, and sewing so she can make her own masks! Alicia loves school, dogs, all things Star Wars, and making musicals for the masses.

Hannah Brodrick: UK-based freelance sound engineer

Hannah is a UK-based freelance sound engineer with 10 years experience in the live music industry. She has toured the world taking on a wide variety of roles from selling T-shirts in Tokyo for Kula Shaker to co-ordinating radio frequencies in arena's for Noel Gallagher and believes variety in work and life is the key to happiness. In 2018 she co-founded the organisation Women In Live Music with the aim to equalise the gender balance across the music industry.

Lenise Bent: Audio Engineer & Producer

Lenise Bent has enjoyed a long career as an audio engineer and producer, honing her skills on many iconic records including “Aja” by Steely Dan and “Breakfast in America” by Supertramp. She is the first female engineer to receive a platinum album for Blondie’s “AutoAmerican” album which includes the very first hit rap song with music, “Rapture”. Lenise is also a post-production audio professional, specializing in recording and editing foley sound effects for many films and animated series and has traveled the world for Dreamworks supervising the foreign dialogue recording and producing the vocals for such animated features as “Shrek”, “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimmaron” and “Shrek 2”. She also archives and repairs audio, instructs, consults and holds workshops for audio students and singer/songwriters. She is a long-standing member of many audio organizations including the Audio Engineering Society, SoundGirls, and the Producers and Engineers Wing of the Recording Academy. Though mostly working in digital recording formats, Lenise recently produced and engineered an all-analog recording with blues/rock/Indy band Primal Kings, recording to 2” tape, mixing to 1⁄2” and cut to vinyl from tape. A “triple A" legacy quality production, recorded and mixed completely out of the box. To know more about Lenise Bent, visit lenisebent.com.

 

Jill Purdy: supervising sound & dialogue/ADR editor

As a prominent Supervising Sound and Dialogue/ADR Editor in the film and television industries of both Canada and the United States, Jill Purdy has an extraordinary record of achievements and awards spanning over two decades. After graduating from both Queen’s University and Sheridan College and initiating her career via a successful internship with Sound Dogs Toronto, Jill gained a distinguished reputation quickly and has continued to thrive at the top of her field. Jill was invited to become a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2018. In addition to 2018’s Oscar-Nominated “The Shape of Water”, Jill’s credits include “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark”, “mother!”, “Molly’s Game”, “Hands of Stone”, “Snow White and the Huntsman”, “Black Swan” and “On the Basis of Sex.” She is currently co-supervising Guillermo del Toro’s “Nightmare Alley”.