Joel Chalwick
Ball State alum Joel Chalwick is the director of production for The Werd Company, a live event production company that specializes in sound, lighting, and video. His days consist of handling back end logistics like load in/out coordination, vendor coordination, artist coordination, and hand-eye coordination. His nights consist of running the mixing console at various events such as street festivals, charity galas, city council debates, club gigs, and pretty much any event that has microphones and speakers. Primarily a sound engineer, Joel has worked with organizations such as South by Southwest, Calvin Klein, Budweiser, Austin City Limits Festival, Bose, Yeti, Yelp, Tumblr, and many more.
Heather MacFarlane
Heather MacFarlane currently resides in New York, NY and is head of production at Q Department, an original music and sound design production house. Along with music and sound design, Heather has taken a focus in audio for Virtual Reality, working with partners such as The New York Times, Oculus, Fox, and Sony. Two of her recent projects, Mr. Robot VR Experience and Dear Angelica, were nominated for a 2017 Emmy Award. Prior to Q Department, Heather was in Los Angeles working for Walt Disney Studios and Remote Control Productions, the film scoring studio of Hans Zimmer.
Ball State was integral in helping Heather reach her current career. The music technology program allowed for focus not only in technology, but performance, history, and theory, all important when looking to succeed in the music industry. The value of internships was passed down from professors, understanding the importance of applying your skills in real-world situations. Heather remembers her time fondly at Ball State and thanks the University and program for the amazing opportunities it provided, from hearing world class musicians to learning the nerdiest of audio software programs.
Kevin Ray
Kevin Ray is a 2009 Ball State graduate with a degree in Music Technology. Partway through his time at Ball State, he applied for an internship and entered the world of tour audio production, working for Eighth Day Sound out of Cleveland, OH. For the next three years, he would find himself on the road working with artists such as Whitney Houston, 311, Tool, Foo Fighters, and Earth Wind and Fire, just to name a few. In mid-2010, Kevin decided that the urge to be out on stage performing was too great, and left Eighth Day Sound to join lifelong friend, Nick Petricca's band, WALK THE MOON. At the time, WTM was unsigned and in constant lineup flux, but it wasn't long after, the band signed with RCA records and released their major label debut in 2012. Since then, WTM has gone on to release two more albums with RCA, performed on festival stages, and headlined shows around the world. In 2014, the band released the song, "Shut Up And Dance," which is now certified triple platinum, earned the band two Billboard Music Awards and many other nominations.
Kyle Stevens
Kyle Stevens is a Los Angeles based freelance Recording Engineer and '07 Ball State graduate. He has worked in studio with recording artists ranging from Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, Chris Cornell, Pearl Jam, Coldplay, and Alice in Chains to Justin Beiber, Justin Timberlake, Daft Punk, Dwight Yoakum, the Boxmasters, and LL Cool J as well as sessions for films such as CHIPs and work for TV's the Voice. He got his start at Henson Recording Studios in Hollywood thanks to his degree in Music Media Technology. A degree in the recording arts was a prerequisite to being hired at Henson and Kyle credits the skills learned from the MT faculty and studios as an invaluable preparation for learning his way around the many studios at Henson.