Conversations with Sound Designers
Conversations with Sound Designers is a series of interviews with theatre sound designers about their career paths and the artistic process of sound design. The podcast focuses on UK sound designers, featuring a wide range of artists from established designers to those at the start of their career. It covers content-based shows, musicals, West End, Broadway, and regional productions. The series is supported by the Association for Sound Design and Production, The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, and the National Theatre Sound Department.
Episodes
S3 E5 : Conversations with Sound Designers - Deanna H Choi
Deanna H. Choi is a sound designer and composer recently relocated to London from Toronto, Canada. Her background is as a classical violinist and neuroscience researcher, and she currently works in theatre, film, dance, and installation. She has collaborated on over 150 productions across 2 continents with companies including Mirvish, the Stratford Festival, Ballet West, the Unicorn Theatre, Royal
S3 E4 : Conversations with Sound Designers - Dan Balfour
Dan Balfour is an Olivier Award Nominated Sound Designer, whose work explores the intersection of storytelling and form. His practice investigates how aural design, technical craft, and composition converge to shape and heighten an audience’s theatrical experience. Theatre Includes: Winter’s Tale (RSC); Vanya (West End, Lucille Lortel NYC); Dear England (National, West End, Tour); The Maids, The C
S3 E3 : Conversations with Sound Designers - Niamh Gaffney
Niamh is a Theatre Sound Designer for Autograph Sound. Born and raised in Ireland, After studying Theatre Performance & Production, focusing on Dance & Musical Theatre, Niamh decided her passion lay in production and moved to London in 2017 to study BA (Hons) Production and Technical Arts at LAMDA. Niamh worked as Associate for Autograph Sound Designers Nick Lidster, Ian Dickinson & L
S3 E2 : Conversations with Sound Designers - Jonathan Deans
Jonathan Deans is an English sound designer with a wealth of experience whose career has been in the UK and USA.He is a five-time Tony award nominee, winning in 2025 for Buena Vista Social Club,and has won countless other awards.His work spans musical productions on Broadway, West End and worldwide, as well as plays and spectacles, including 16 productions for Cirque de Sole.His recent musicals in
S3 E1 : Conversations with Sound Designers - Gareth Owen
Gareth Owen is one of the worlds leading Sound Designers, with a prolific career spanning over 25yrs. His work can be found all over the world including Broadway, Las Vegas and London's West End. He's designed over 250 productions, with over 50 million people enjoying his sound designs worldwide. Gareth is the proud recipient of a Tony Award for MJ the Musical, and Olivier Awards for Come from Awa
S2 E6 : Conversations with Sound Designers - John Leonard
John Leonard produced his first sound design in September 1972 for a production of A Streetcar Named Desire at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre Company's Little Theatre. Since then, he has: produced countless soundtracks for theatres around the world; spent eleven years with the Royal Shakespeare Company; worked regularly as a freelancer for the Almeida Theatre, Hampstead Theatre and Donmar Warehou
S2 E5 : Conversations with Sound Designers - Nicola T Chang
Nicola T. Chang is an award-winning composer/sound designer for stage and screen from Hong Kong, now currently based in London. She was the Composer/Sound Designer on the 2020/21 Old Vic 12 and a co-winner of the Evening Standard Future Theatre Fund (Audio Design) in 2021. She started her theatre career in performance, having performed in STOMP! West End and Six the Musical, and continues to perfo
S2 E4 : Conversations with Sound Designers - Donato Wharton
Donato Wharton is a Sound Designer and Musician, he was born in Cardiff Wales in 1976, he grew up in Worthing West Sussex and went to school in Stuttgart in southern Germany. Donato's career as a musician, and his life in theatre began in Stuttgart. Donato's music spanning the genres of Alternative Rock, Hip Hop, Electronica, Digital Ambient and Filed Recording based music has been publish
S2 E3 : Conversations with Sound Designers - Carolyn Downing
Carolyn Downing is an award-winning sound designer working in a variety of fields including exhibitions, fashion, theatre and live events. Creativity and collaboration are at the heart of her work from initial concept development with fellow designers through to realisation with technical and project delivery teams.
Carolyn’s most memorable projects include Goya And Munch: Modern Prophecies for Mu
S2 E2 : Conversations with Sound Designers - Alexandra Faye-Braithwaite
Alexandra Faye-Braithwaite is a sound designer and composer working across theatre, tv and radio. As well as bespoke audio projects born in Lancashire and brought up in Yorkshire. She now calls Manchester home she’s worked all across the UK including the The Royal Court, The Young Vic, The RSC, The Royal Exchange , The West End, Sheffield Crucible and more as well as internationally, most notably
S2 E1 : Conversations with Sound Designers - The Ringham Brothers
Ben and Max Ringham are multi award-winning Composers, Sound Designers and Dramatists. Over the last two decades they have worked extensively in film, television, theatre, dance and performance.Notable recent work includes:(as Composers/Sound Designers)
Prima Facie - West End/Broadway (Olivier Best Sound Design nomination, BWW Sound Design winner), 2022-23A Dolls House - Broadway, 2023 Blindness
S1 E7 (Bonus Demo Episode) - Conversations with Sound Designers - Ian Dickinson
Ian Dickinson is an Olivier Award winning, Tony Nominated Sound Designer for Theatre. He has an extensive catalogue of work, with key and frequent collaboration with The National Theatre, Harper Eliot/ Marianne Elliot, Mathew Dunster and Ian Rickson. He is a resident designer for the London based sound company Autograph Sound, and in the past has been Head of Sound at the Royal Court, the Lyceum t
S1 E6 - Conversations with Sound Designers - Anna Clock
Anna Clock is a composer, musician and sound artists working across all forms including theatre, film, radio and installation; as well as composing and performing for other musicians and leading their own projects, they are based in London.
S1 E5 - Conversations with Sound Designers - Tony Gayle
Tony is a London based Theatre Sound Designer specialising in Musicals, Plays and live music events.
Tony has been working in the Theatre industry for over 30 years after entering the industry after a short lived professional football career.
He has a City & Guilds in Sound Engineering and a BTEC National Diploma in Stagecraft.
Theatre backstage diversity and inclusion activism features heavil
S1 E4 - Conversations with Sound Designers - Tingying Dong
Ting is a Sound Designer, Composer, and Theatre Maker. After graduating from drama school in 2019, she started off creating sound design for fringe theatre and quickly made her way into larger spaces. Her recent work includes Watch On The Rhine at Donmar Warehouse, My Son’s A Queer (But What Can You Do?) at Garrick Theatre, and designing the sound content for The Crucible at National Theatre.
As a
S1 E3 - Conversations with Sound Designers - Paul Arditti
Paul Arditti is a sound designer working on plays and musicals. He won a Tony Award for Billy Elliot The Musical on Broadway, and has received several other Tony nominations, most recently for The Inheritance, with his co-designer Chris Reid. Amongst his other awards are four Drama Desks, two Oliviers and an Evening Standard.Following a degree in English and Drama at the University of Hull, Paul i
S1 E2 - Conversations with Sound Desingers - Tom Gibbons
In this episode we meet Tom Gibbons. Tom is a sound designer and composer who works predominantly in live theatre and musicals, and sometimes film. He studied for a degree in Theatre Sound at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama before starting a career in sound design, living and working in London.
Over the last ten years Tom has designed sound on projects at most of the large London
S1 E1 - Conversations with Sound Designers - Melanie Wilson
In this first episode we talk to Melanie Wilson. Melanie is is a U.K. based multi-disciplinary performance maker. Her acclaimed work is founded on the contemporary interplay between sound art, experimental forms of composition, language and live performance. Melanie collaborates with artists and companies across theatre, film, opera and installation, creating highly crafted sound works at varying
