In early 2026, I was introduced to Julie Sloan, a sound engineer for Broadway shows including Disney’s Aida National Tour and Jersey Boys since its creation in 2005. She is currently working on Hamilton and SIX on Broadway. Julie generously invited me to observe her mix both of these musicals so I could see the live audio side of the music industry. I went to SIX first and I learned so much about the differences of handheld microphones compared to body mics on the forehead. I was also able to see the ear pieces for each character, as well as the zactrack SMART system used to track each performer’s motion and correlate it to the speakers around the theater for an immersive audio experience. I loved getting to see the process before the show starts, checking all of the microphones, and the systems they use to communicate to people backstage during the show. 

When I met Julie for the second time, I had the amazing opportunity to observe her mix the show Hamilton. This was a different experience because everyone wore their mics and there were no handhelds. This show is also incredibly fast, and seeing Julie turn on and off everyone's microphones at the exact right time for almost three hours was so impressive. We also had some time to talk about how the sound board works and how it's set up for this show. One of my favorite parts was when there was an echo and repeated part in the song because there's a button for repeated audio which has to be pressed at the right time in order to get the effect right. I loved this experience and getting a better understanding of how live sound works.