Hello!

I am a freelance sound designer, musical composer, and audio engineer based in Maryland. My work has been featured in plays, cabarets, films, podcasts, art installations, and more. Check out my portfolio to listen to my work and see what I can do. Please get in touch if you want to collaborate! Whether you are a production company looking to grow your contact sheet of designers, or you are an individual artist looking to jam on fresh ideas, I would love to join your project and make sound with you!

Meet Kaydin

I studied at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), earning a BA in theatre design and production, as well as a music minor. While my theatre studies encompassed a wide scope of design areas, I specialized in sound through my production work and studied the clarinet in private lessons. I was a founding member of my department’s USITT chapter and served as its secretary. I was on the dean’s list all 4 years, and graduated Summa Cum Laude. In the following years, I have continued to work at UMBC as a guest artist in sound design. I act as a bridge between the undergrad students and the UMBC faculty and staff, providing insight and constructive input to both groups.

My greatest proficiency is in composing music that underscores a larger work, such as plays, films, and spoken word pieces. I have an advanced technical background in audio engineering. I mix local and touring musicians, consistently receiving great feedback. I play the piano, guitar, and several woodwind instruments, plus pretty much any instrument you hand me if I get some time to practice! I have a delightful collection of instruments, sound making toys, and other such musical oddities that I love to experiment with and collect. I am an adept and confident musical improviser with a great ear for picking up tunes quickly. I am always willing to accept a new challenge, whether it be a new instrument or genre to master, a new artist to learn about, or diving deeper into the same core skills which unite my whole musical practice.

As a sound designer, I can create an amazing score to a piece that is otherwise pretty bare bones or match your already fabulous energy. On the canvas of time I paint sound pictures that fill out the whole world of the story. My focus on the sonic environment rather than the visual environment also places the sensory focus on feeling rather than seeing. Sound has a physical impact on our whole bodies, reverberating alongside the eardrum in sympathetic vibration. Whether you experience my work live or through your own headphones/speakers, I am so happy to reach out an touch you in a positive way! I accept my responsibility as a sound artist, knowing the power of the medium I work with. May we all tune to the world’s fundamental frequency and sing together in harmony, our voices being our ultimate key to freedom.

I live and work mostly on Susquehannock and Piscataway land. Through my work, I aim to decolonize the ideas of borders we have come to know in the 21st century. Since October 2023, I have worked as an artist in residence at the Piney Run Nature Center in collaboration with the mater naturalist, Basil Levesque. The park serves as my home base for my creative exploration in nature. I consider myself a dedicated personal steward to the land I live on. Through my work in music and sound, I hope to infuse these ideas into a language that can be understood by all. My music honors the cycles of nature's seasons and how they are reflected in us. We have a lot to learn from the lessons nature teaches us. I have learned to tune in to the interconnectedness of our world. I find relief from grief and strength in coping with life’s challenges. I listen with humility and I build with patience. May you open your heart and ears to the sounds of nature and listen to what calls from within.

Finally, I’m a nonbinary human who has gone through quite the transition! I was assigned female at birth and muddled through, utterly lost in dysphoria, derealization, and depersonalization until I found salvation in transition. Since then, I have undergone it all, name change, many years of HRT, top surgery, and fighting to stay proud amongst the crazy world we live in. At this point, I’m an “any pronouns” kind of guy, if you were wondering. The creative work I have gotten to do with other queer folks has been some of the most precious work I have been granted to opportunity to do. In our radical fight for survival, may we find community in creativity. I’m loud and proud, and all my work is deeply drenched in rainbows!

Photo gallery

~Kaydin’s Vibes ~

In the news

Sept. 30 2024. From UMBC’s featured alumni page:

Four years of far-flung freelancing after graduation, Kaydin landed back home in rural Maryland with as much time spent working as a full time artist as he had spent at UMBC. His resume was strange and varied. From sound designing Shakespeare on California cliffs, to writing music while bartering with goat farmers, Kaydin’s dedication to the craft he learned at UMBC was a constant undercurrent to his artistic endeavors. Professor Adam Mendelson’s words constantly echoed in Kaydin’s head: “follow your signal path,” a platitude of troubleshooting advice for audio engineers that doubles as a mantra. One must “follow your signal path” within.

Kaydin’s work came to a halt when multiple health concerns coalesced and asked him to come home and recover, his “signal path” rerouted. Physical therapy would need to be tended to every day for at least a year, which coincided with the choice to base himself in Frederick in both his career and personal life. The Maryland Ensemble Theatre had been an artistic home to Kaydin since early days of his freelance career, and the Weinberg Center for the Arts was hiring stage technicians to work shows at both the Weinberg and New Spire Arts. These three theatres occupy a single block of Patrick street in the heart of Downtown Frederick. Kaydin’s integration into the Frederick’s arts and entertainment district has proven mutually beneficial. “I fulfill an important niche of the artistic ecosystem here, and I’m really proud to say that what I learned at UMBC informs my artistic and technical work every day. I can fall back on my instincts knowing that they are coming from my education and I can trust them,” Kaydin says about his work downtown.

Kaydin Hamby is company member at the Maryland Ensemble Theatre. Past MET credits include Sense and Sensibility, The Three Swingin’ Little Pigs, Angels in America Parts 1 & 2, Revolutionists, Meteor Shower, Admissions, Circle Mirror Transformation (Sound Designer), Head Over Heels (Guitar 1), Christmas Carol, The Tempest (Audio Engineer). Kaydin is the musical director of MET Comedy Night’s “Off Key: An Improvised Musical” where he provides guitar accompaniment for a group of improv performers (and a drummer!) to sing along to, which Kaydin describes as “basically the improv version of sound design.” His work as a stage technician and audio engineer at the Weinberg and New Spire Arts is ever-changing and demands close attention to detail. Kaydin knows that “a piece of genius forethought during load-in might save the show later that evening.” Kaydin can be heard around town with his guitar, writing his own music, practicing for Off Key, coming up with ideas for sound designs, or just taking a break from the noise.