Ryan Hopper

​I am a freelance sound designer, music maker, and multi-instrumentalist currently located in New York City. I hold a Master of Fine Arts for Theatre Sound Design from Purdue University. My interest in sound is vast and includes everything from technical engineering and system design to composition, synthesis, and live performance. 

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As a playmaker, I've collaborated with artists to produce new works that examine the cultural and social divides present in the United States, offering honest yet hopeful solutions to our present climate. It is my sincere belief that understanding breeds empathy.

I have designed for regional theaters across the US and abroad. Notable design and composition work includes Hamlet, Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre; The Tooth of Crime, Columbia University Theatre; Project Unspeakable for Convergences Theatre Collective; The Amish Project, Taproot Theatre; A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Court Theatre, New Zealand; and Pride and Prejudice, Purdue University Theatre. In the summer of 2013, I was the Sound Design Fellow at Ithaca, New York's Hangar Theatre, designing a total of nine shows. I participated in the 2011 Prague Quadrennial as part of Purdue University's Disk Stories entry, Ad Inifititum³.
 

Following my interest in the recording arts and studio recording techniques, I have engineered and mixed for and under punk rock legend Mass Giorgini at his own Sonic Iguana Studios, working with artists from the Cayman Islands, Canada, and Italy. This experience has informed my current recording and production environment.

 

I'm currently writing and performing original music as The Year of the Hare; playing keyboard, handling sound design, and programming Ableton Live integration for Oracle Room; and playing drums in Sotto Voce and Little Slugger.