Live Design and LDI are pleased to announce that sound designer William N. Lowe will be the recipient of the 2024 USITT Rising Star Award. Established by LiveDesign/LDI in 2005, this annual award recognizes a young professional working in the disciplines of scenic, lighting, sound, or projection/video design. Lowe will be honored during the 2024 USITT Conference & Stage Expo, in Seattle, WA, March 20-23, 2024.
Lowe is a game audio designer based in New York City. He is also is a sound designer/mixer for Clean Cuts Interactive where he has just completed Asgard's Wrath 2 with Sanzaru Games, and is the product manager at AVAE for entertainment audio playback, and show control software: Canvas. At CCI he has worked on Lego 2K Drive, WWE2K22, and NBA 2K22 along with film, TV, audio book, and podcast projects. He worked previously at the John F. Kennedy Center, Mainstreet Musicals, Chautauqua Theater Company, Quantum Theater, Philadelphia Fringe, and Capital Fringe. He is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University's School of Drama and can be found at wnlsounddesign.com.
“I am honored to receive the Rising Star Award from USITT, Live Design, and LDI. I owe my work on the cutting edge of the entertainment industry — at the intersection of art and technology — to the unique theatrical training I received,” says Lowe.
"William Lowe is a stellar example of the next generation of theater artist. He moves with ease between different related entertainment fields. He is contributing to the practice by helping develop better and more sophisticated tools. He is proving to be invaluable to fields where practitioners typically lack in the sort of world-building and storytelling skills which theater-makers possess,” comments Joe Pino, professor of Sound Design Carnegie Mellon University– School of Drama.
Rising Star Award Winners 2005-2023
2023: Adam J. Thompson, video and graphic designer
2022: Kristen Martino, scenic designer
2021: Elizabet Puksto, scenic/production designer
2020: Joe Klug, scenic designer
2019: Maranda DeBusk, lighting/projection designer
2018: Paige Hathaway, scenic designer
2017: Bryce Cutler, scenic & media designer
2016 Stephen Moss, lighting designer
2015 Chris Wood, lighting & sound designer
2014 Janie Bullard, sound designer
2013 Aaron Porter, lighting designer
2012 Jason Simms, scene designer
2011 Daniel Brodie, projection designer
2010 Ben Pilat, lighting designer
2009 Sean Savoie, lighting designer
2008 Elisheba Ittoop, sound designer
2007 John Horan, lighting designer
2006 Justin Townsend, lighting & scenic designer
2005 Kelly Hanson, scenic designer