Michael Walsh - Alumni Spotlight

Michael Walsh ’92 is currently going into his 15th year working at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival where he has been Head of Audio for many shows, including The Tempest with Christopher Plummer, and mixed Front of House for the critically acclaimed West Side Story and many more. He also works as a sound designer for theatre, is currently on the Board of Associated Designers of Canada, and is an IATSE member in London and Stratford. He has designed sounds for plays at Stratford and around the country, most recently in Ottawa at the National Arts Centre. During the school year, Michael teaches sound for the Fanshawe College Technical Theatre Program since it re-opened a few years ago, and previously worked in a similar capacity at Ryerson University.



Before joining the Stratford Festival team, Michael worked for many different sound companies around SW Ontario – Pierce Sound, Palmer Audio etc. – doing everything from installations and events to live mixing to course communications for CART racing. As a musician, after graduating OIART’s audio and music production course, he could be seen around London mixing and playing at Call the Office, The Embassy Hotel and The Brunswick. Michael has started to enjoy playing drums again in his free time with “a great bunch” of festival actors and musicians. Mike reports that he recently acquired a 56 channel CADAC J series from the Festival that he’s working on building a studio around.

Mike told us, “My time at OIART has been the foundation of everything I have done in my varied career in audio. The more I work, and now teach, the more I realize that concentrating on the fundamentals is timeless and priceless. I’ve been able to apply that principle to many other disciplines as well, and stayed very busy and fulfilled since I left OIART.” Thanks Michael!