Meet Ann Zhou | Audio Engineer & Live Event Producer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ann Zhou and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ann, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
From a very young age, my parents always tried to take me to different classes like dance, speech & debate, math, piano, and science that would fill up my weekend time. I really only enjoyed dance and piano, and those are the ones that opened the gate of creative world for me. As a child, it was amazing to let myself dive into this freedom of expressing my feelings and communicating with my body and mind. I did not feel like I had to be like other kids, or fulfill whatever “goals” the society seemingly “sets” for our generation.

Many years later now, I graduated from Berklee College of Music, and am still on the path of exploring my creativity. I have tried many different roles in music and sports, but I was never the type of person to sit in a cubicle for 8 hours straight 5 days a week. I love that my day to day never looks the same, and I’m always working with people that are super passionate about what we’re doing. Not every one get to do what they love as a career, therefore I feel extremely lucky that I am in the entertainment industry.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
It took me a long road to get to where I am today, and it’s still only the starting point for me. After I got into Berklee, I started exploring different path in the music industry, from agent to A&R, from studio to live events. I committed to audio engineering, and it was hundreds and hundreds of hours of practicing and recording in the studios. Often me and my friends will record and mix in studio till 6AM in the morning, and we would still have to go to class 3 hours later. My professor often said, “you need 10,000 hours of practice in the studio to make professional decisions.” And that’s what I’m aiming to do.

I was so eager to learn everything, and I also did lots of hours working as live sound engineer. That’s the first time I felt like. “I can make this my career.” Working on live shows is very different than in studios. It’s lots of late nights and early morning load-ins, and I always feel adrenaline running through my body when I’m mixing, because you can see the audience’s reaction to your work at the same time. It’s an amazing feeling, and you don’t get that in the studio.

A year later, I got an internship opportunity at the Boston Celtics, and it took my passion for live events to another level. Working at TD Garden was such a dream come true, I would be on comms and talking to our team while helping with logistics, and there is 18,000 fans in the venue around me chanting. I don’t think there’s anything better than that moment, And it reassured my goal to work in live events industry. At that time I was still a full-time student, so every single week I had 30 hours of internship, 25 hours and classes, and 20 hours work-study to juggle. But I truly enjoyed every second of it.

Now I get to work at ESPN Headquarters as part of their audio team, doing sounds for ESPN broadcasting around the world. And I still have so much to learn and bigger goals to accomplish.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
In Boston, I always take my friends who are visiting me to the Back Bay area. We usually start at Newbury street, and make our way to the Commonwealth Ave and Boston Commons Park. The streets here are 18th century European brownstone style, and it’s especially prettier this season, because there’s flowers every corner you turn into. As the weather gets nicer, a lot of people would come out and have a picnic or bike around. And of course if you are a sports fanatic, you have to catch a Red Sox or Celtics game, and enjoy the best venues and hospitality we have.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I want to shout out to my mentor Oxy. Although I started doing live events before meeting him, he is really the one that brought me into the door and taught me so many things and lessons in this business and in life in general. I admire his passion and professionalism for audio and music, and hopefully one day we get to work on the same project again.

Website: https://www.annzhoumusic.com/

Instagram: ann_zhouf

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annzhouf/

Image Credits
Jimmy Liu