SoundGirls Podcast

Kyrsten Mate: award winning sound designer with Skywalker Sound

Kyrsten Mate is an award winning Sound Designer who has worked for Skywalker Sound for 25 years. Her credits include Mulan, The Midnight Sky, Ready Player One, Tomorrowland, Jarhead, and many others. Among the directors she has worked with are Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg, Brad Bird, and Walter Murch. In addition, she recently completed the Sound Design for Disneyland’s Batuu: Galaxy’s Edge.

Mollie Autherson: Technical Sales Specialist for DiGiCo

Mollie is a Technical Sales Specialist at DiGiCo, who design and manufacture live digital mixing consoles. She enrolled at the University of Surrey in 2015 where she studied the Tonmeister course in music and sound recording. As part of the course she spent a year as a placement student working at DiGiCo in the R&D department, beta testing new software and products before they were released. After finishing her degree, Mollie returned to DiGiCo full time as a member of the Sales team, providing technical support to the marketing team and the rest of the sales team in the form of technical documentation, customer training and support, and training videos. She also gets involved in the test department when they are busy to help test new products and software.

Rebecca Wilson: touring monitor engineer & head audio engineer for the TED World Theatre

Rebecca Wilson is an industry veteran, working in live sound for over 25 years. Touring solely as a monitor engineer, except for a brief stint as FOH Engineer for Flemming and John (while out with Ben Folds), she has worked for Sound Image, at Humphrey’s by the Bay and toured with Nanci Griffith, Wilco, The Bangles, and more. Rebecca is based in New York, and after finishing a 15-month project for Tibet House US, the Cultural Center for the Dalai Lama in NYC has moved into the position of head audio engineer for the TED headquarters and TED World Theatre.

Bonnie Wild: British Sound Designer & Re-Recording mixer

Bonnie Wild is a British born Sound Designer and Re-recording Mixer. As a second generation audio artist, she remembers little of life before the dub stage. With summers spent at her Father’s studio, lacing reel to reels and examining the art of the mix, she has an innate connection to sound and story telling.

Also an accomplished guitarist, Bonnie graduated from Leeds College of Music in 2003. She was soon working in the Post Production Sound Department at the ITV Leeds Studios, sound editing and mixing primetime UK drama.

After chancing it all and starting a new life in San Francisco, Bonnie’s dream of working at Skywalker Sound became reality. Since 2012, she has worked on projects ranging from premium television and commercials to documentary and features.

Through her work, Bonnie strives to connect with audiences and create authentic, emotional experiences through the art of sound.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2194392/

Jill Zimmermann: Award winning Audio Engineer

Jill is an Award winning Audio Engineer currently working mainly out of Jukasa Studios. Coming from Cologne, Germany, Jill followed her dream to work in the North American Music Industry with its wealth of talented musicians and artists. She achieved a Bachelor of Engineering in Media Technology specializing in Audio at the University of Applied Sciences in Düsseldorf, Germany. In addition, she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Audio Production at the School of Audio Engineering (SAE) in Cologne.
Since Jill moved to Canada, she started working on many projects alongside the two Juno winning albums from Harrison Kennedy “This Is From Here” and “Touch” by July Talk. Additionally she has played an important role as the engineer of 2 Gold Singles, a Gold Record and several Billboard #1 Hits while working with bands such as: Three Days Grace, Alice Cooper, City and Colour, Alexisonfire, July Talk, and The Trews. Having worked as a fulltime engineer made it possible to work with renowned Engineers and Producers: Bob Ezrin (Alice Cooper, Deep Purple, Kiss, Pink Floyd), Howard Benson (Daughtry, Santana, My Chemical Romance), Gavin Brown (Billy Talent, Barenaked Ladies, The Tea Party), Mike Plotnikoff (Three Days Grace, Hoobastank, BlessTheFall), Ian Davenport (July Talk, Wir Sind Helden) and David Bendeth (Paramore, Papa Roach, Breaking Benjamin).

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.