Ethan Eldred a composer, Designer, and Performance Technologist
from the appalachian mountains
his mission is “facilitating togetherness, with storytelling and technology”
Mission Statement:
Hello!
I’m Ethan (he/him), and this is what I do:
I do a lot, and I love sound and music. I have a broad background in theatre, concert, and event production, a pinch of management experience, and an education in music composition and production with a dash of philosophy and religion.
But my life mission comes down to this: facilitating togetherness, with storytelling and technology.
In a culture built on disrespect for lives and lands, and defined by ideological silos and echo-chambers, even before a global pandemic amplified our separation, storytelling has long been a force for togetherness. The experience of theatre, art in real-time, in common space (physical or virtual), has the innate potential to bring hearts and minds together like no other storytelling medium. It’s so real when it’s real and so absurd when it’s absurd, so good when it’s good, and — yes — so bad when it’s bad. A successful performance or presentation can open minds to learn, inspire people to do better together, and even help communities grow.
In my design and composition work, I push myself and my colleagues to define the core concept as concisely as possible (Woyzeck: “Spiral into Madness” This Too Comes By Hard: “Real, Imagined, Remembered, or Desired?” 39 Steps: “Nostalgic cinema hijinks”) and use that keystone to build the story’s bridge to the audience. Does this serve the story, does this change the story? Does this serve the concept, does this change the concept? Does this serve the audience, does this change them?
At its best, technology serves the same purpose. I love tinkering and knob twisting to a fault, but the innovations I’m most proud of have all been subtle solutions to deploy limited or outdated resources to good effect in service of my team and their story. My hope is that innovations in electroacoustics, object-based sound, immersive and spatial audio, and VR/AR, as well as falling costs of processing power and distribution, will connect more lives and stories together, with an immediacy and intimacy unimaginable today. What I want from my work is to grow to be part of developing the next generation of tools and techniques that will bring people together even more seamlessly.
Aside from storytelling and tech, I believe that academia — done well — can be another of the world’s great forces for togetherness. In my academic work, I always keep in mind the tools I can provide my students and colleagues to further togetherness in the world. Anything I do in my own work in teaching, design, and tech comes from that drive. The more experiences I have, the more tools I can provide, the better all of our work together.
Togetherness itself is my greatest hope for humanity. Storytelling and technology are my tools.
So what do you say? Let’s get together.
Ethan Eldred
Bio:
Ethan Eldred is a sound designer, composer, and theatre tech from the beautiful Appalachian Mountains, first by birth in Central Pennsylvania, and later by choice in Virginia and Massachusetts. His teenage garage bands led to an attic recording studio, a homespun music festival, and an ever-growing interest in the intersection of performance and technology. In 2015, he graduated with a B.A. in Music from Messiah College, where he spent most of his time with the theatre kids, at his work-study jobs as an event tech and recordist, or hosting house concerts. During this time he found his mission statement, “facilitating togetherness.”
In 2014, as a student at The Contemporary Music Center in Nashville, Ethan studied production tech, and production-managed the program’s capstone tour, The CMC Holotour, an entirely student-run touring show. The show closer was a remote set from songwriter Jon Guerra, who played live from home with the tour band accompanying on stage. This “Pepper’s ghost” performance was billed as the nation’s first touring concert hologram.
As a composer and sound designer, Ethan has provided soundscapes, effects, and reinforcement for shows on academic, independent, and summer stock stages since 2012, when he responded to a mass email, signing on to sound design the romantic-era play The Phantom by Dion Boucicault, on condition that he could also score it. The score was melodramatic, to suit the material, but perhaps a little naïve and over the top.
Later designs include work for Messiah College, Eastern Mennonite U, Bridgewater College, Unreal City Theatre, and Totem Pole Playhouse. In 2013, Ethan was honored for Messiah College’s J.B. with the KCACTF Certificate of Merit and their Regional Sound Design Award. In 2017, Ethan designed and composed for Unreal City Theatre’s Capital Fringe show, This Too Comes by Hard, which heavily featured surreal, voiceover-driven soundscapes. EMU’s 2017 production, The 39 Steps, featured Ethan live as a foley artist and trickster, in addition to his sound design work, and was invited to the KCACTF Region 2 festival.
Other work includes production management at Totem Pole Playhouse, James Madison U’s Forbes Center for the Performing Arts, the Verona (VA) Community Center, and the Shenandoah Valley Music Festival, engineering at Shakespeare and Co., and corporate and concert production work throughout the Northeast.
2018-2021 Ethan served as the theater technician at Williams College’s ’62 Center for Theatre and Dance, and since 2019 as the Sound and Video Supervisor for Jacob’s Pillow, the U.S.’s longest-running dance festival. In addition to student and faculty work, Ethan has supported performers from around the world, including Akram Khan, 600 Highwaymen, SITI Company, Reggie Wilson, Irene Rodriguez, and more.
In 2021 Ethan travelled to the West Coast to pursue an MFA in Theatre Design at UC San Diego, under mentors Bobby McElver (Sound Design) and Victoria Petrovich (Projections Design). With additional thesis committee members Shahrokh Yadegari (Spatial Sound Researcher and Composer) and Christopher Kuhl (Lighting Designer), Ethan defended his thesis Creative Connectivity: Defining a Practice in the Arts in 2024.
As of fall 2024, Ethan is a full-time Lecturing Fellow in Design at Duke University, with teaching and design assignments spanning the departments of Theater Studies, Music, and Dance, as well as the Audio and Media Supervisor for the national tour of Is It Thursday Yet? by Jenn Freeman and Sonya Tayeh.
Ethan continues to call Appalachia home, along with his artistic wife Grace and “artíste” chiweenie Bindi.