While on stage, Heidi Trefethen is often found in the French horn chair performing with leading orchestras around Northern California. Off stage, however, she’s found behind the sound board as one of the region’s most sought after audio engineers.
After attending a concert by the Seattle Symphony at her middle school in the Pacific Northwest, Trefethen fell in love with the sound of the French horn. She would go on to attend Brigham Young University on a full music scholarship and eventually spend 3 years in Italy performing with the Rome Opera Orchestra before moving to the Bay Area.
It was after working as a freelancer that Trefethen decided to pivot her career and attend a 9 month program at California Recording Institute.
Today, Trefethen is an engineer at two premiere Bay Area venues. One is SF Jazz, where she’s worked for the past 9 years and the other is Freight and Salvage in Berkeley, where she started nearly 25 years ago.
In an industry that has historically been inequitable, Trefethen is working to expand opportunities for young women as an instructor at a non-profit called Women’s Audio Mission. There, she teaches introduction to audio production and recording. It is the only studio in the world that is run by women and gender expansive people.
CapRadio Classical Host Jennifer Reason sat down with Trefethen to discuss her journey of overcoming prejudice and leading the way for others.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Interview highlights
On the challenges she and others face
There’s just been this assumption that women aren’t technical or capable of possessing technical skills, especially in music. There’s a lot of gatekeeping. There has been and there still is.
It is a monumental task to train, give opportunities to and employ women. I’ve had so many reactions and they’ve changed over the years. It’ll be 25 years in June since I started, and back then I was honestly the only woman that I knew in the field. There were many times that I would work with certain men and they just couldn’t imagine that I know what I’m talking about or that I’m capable. It’s a battle that I have been fighting since then.
There are times that I wanted to quit, but I never let it stop me. There are still men that I encounter in my work who are just convinced that I don’t know what I’m talking about. That includes coworkers, artists who come to the venue, managers, et cetera.
On how she manages the negative assumptions
I’m very confident in my skills. I don’t expect prejudice necessarily, but when I do encounter it I just connect to that really confident part of myself and do my work. It’s all about doing the work. That’s what I’m there for and that’s what I focus on.
On what drew her to becoming an engineer
My interest in engineering started when I was really young. I came from a musical household and when I was 9, my uncle gave me all of his Beatles cassettes and LPs and a stereo.
I listened to every last one of those cassettes and I noticed that the vocals were panned to one side and that all of the instruments were panned to the other side. I thought that was just fascinating and wondered why they did that.
I took that cassette tape out to my parents’ VW bus that we had when I was little and I panned the stereo so that only the music was playing out of the speakers. Then, I took my portable cassette player and put a blank tape in there, pressed record and I recorded myself singing “All My Loving.” That was my first overdub and ever since then, my interest just grew.
On teaching audio engineering
I have been teaching for Women’s Audio Mission for about 10 years now. I teach level one which is intro to audio production and recording. We do the science of sound, signal routing, intro to the recording chain, etc. I also teach live sound classes and pro tools certification. It’s a fantastic organization and I’ve loved my work there.
It’s also the only studio in the world that is run by women and gender expansive people. It’s amazing what can happen when one feels free to ask questions and not feel bad about it or like their voice isn’t valid. It’s important for these barriers to come down because we’re talking about art. Music is telling a story and not just one demographic’s story exists.
On her advice to other young women
Don’t give up. Putting one foot in front of the other is the key. Also, this business is so much about who you know and networking is everything. There’s so many people out there who want to help and all you have to do is ask. The worst thing that they can say is no and if they do, you move on to the next person. Decide what you want to do, set goals, network, develop a thick skin and just continue forward.
