BSMC Speaker Spotlight: Scott Lehrer, First-Ever Tony Winner for Sound Design

Scott Lehrer, the first-ever sound designer in the history of Broadway to win a Tony Award—for Lincoln Center Theatre’s revival of South Pacific—will present “Acoustical Issues in the Vivian Beaumont” at the Broadway Sound Master Classes (BSMC), Sunday, May 17 at NYU Tisch School of the Arts in New York.

His session will focus on respecting the sonic world of a classic American musical using new technologies and “good, old-fashioned physics, with special thanks to our laser distro and spreadsheet,” Lehrer says. “In doing my third musical at the Vivian Beaumont theatre over the last 15 years, I finally felt that we had the tools available to begin to conquer the unique acoustical issues encountered in designing live sound in that thrust style space. We haven’t, by any means, fully solved the puzzle, but the solutions we came up with for South Pacific were a good start.”

Lehrer made his Broadway debut in 1989 with The Heidi Chronicles. His range of Broadways shows includes the current productions of Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, South Pacific, and the revival of Chicago, as well as Chita Rivera: The Dancer’s Life, The Frogs, The Caretaker, Frankie and Johnnie in the Clair de Lune, Thou Shalt Not, The Invention of Love, James Joyce’s The Dead, Ah Wilderness!, Angels In America: Perestroika/The Millennium Approaches, Once On This Island, and Prelude To A Kiss.

The Broadway Sound Master Classes will be held May 15 to 17 at NYU Tisch School of the Arts in New York and includes a ticket to attendthe revival of Hair on Broadway on Friday evening, May 15, with sound design by Nevin Steinberg and Sten Severson of Acme Sound Partners, who will be joined by legendary sound designer Abe Jacob for a look at the sound design for Hair, Then (the 1960s-70s) and Now.

Check out full Broadway Sound Master Classes course information here