Bill Toles
Producer / Director / Music / Film / Media Design
eyeline @ gmail.com
the BLACK ATLANTIC creative collective is a multi-media production and post-production company providing theatrical and event production management, tour management, visual production, projection and design, stage and production lighting, film scoring, musical composition, sound design, Foley and sound effects, audio production with up to 7.1 surround capability, music supervision services, including information and direction on intellectual property rights issues.
Clients have included The Black Filmmakers Collective, Shimon Attie / Norsk Hydro, Black Spectrum Films, Harlem Congregations for Community Improvement, Ayodele Casel, Welcome To Harlem, Craig Harris, Vision Festival, Amiri Baraka, Urban Bush Women, Ping Chong, Black Rock Coalition, Downtown Urban Arts Festival, Lincoln Center, NAACP, Operations Crossroads Africa 50th Anniversary 2008, St Clair Bourne, Woodie King, Sam Pollard, Sekou Sundiata, Rodney Evans, and many others.
Selected List of Production Credits
Sound Design/Composer • Art Installation Ex-Domestication (in new venue) / at Hammonds House Museum, Atlanta GA - January 2024
Media Visual Design • Tongues of Fire / Craig Harris / Harlem Stage - October 2023
Sound Design • 20 Seconds / Signature Theatre (off-Broadway) - dir. Jeremy Blaustein - + Production Manager - September 2023
Sound Design / Score - original music • Pay The Writer / Signature Theatre (off-Broadway) - dir. Karen Carpenter / + Production Manager - August 2023
Sound Design • Haint Blu - Urban Bush Women / site-specific performance - St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, Harlem USA - June 2023
Sound Design • Scat (workshop) - Urban Bush Women - dir. Jawole Willa Jo Zollar / Craig Harris composer - Brown University Lindemann Center - May 2023
Production Management • Ayodele Casel’s Chasing Magic - Spoleto Dance Festival - May 2023
Sound Design • Millenials Are Killing Musicals - Theatre 71 - April 2023
Sound Design/Composer • Art Installation Ex-Domestication – Precious D. Lovell / Brightwork Fellowship – February 2023
Production Manager / Sound Design • Lewberger and The Wizard of Friendship - Theatre Row - March 2023
Production Manager • All Islands Connect Underwater: A Celebration of Ping Chong and Bruce Allardice – Chelsea Factory – January 2023
Director • Benefit for Alliance Of Families For Justice • WAITING AT THE WALL - afj-ny.org - Harlem Stage - City College of New York - December 2022
Sound Design • The Rat Trap by Noel Coward - The Mint Theater - New York City Center Stage II - October-December 2022
Production Manager • Ayodele Casel’s Chasing Magic - The Joyce Residency, NYC - October 2022
Sound Design / Additional Score - original music • Detroit ‘67 by Dominique Morriseau - Theater Squared - Fayetteville AK - dir. Dexter J. Singleton, October-November 2022
Production Manager • Right On For The Darkness: The Black Futurist Gospel of Curtis Mayfield - Symphony Space, NYC - Black Rock Coalition / Darrell McNeill conductor - November 2022
Media Design / guitarist • A Seat At The Table - Fannie Lou Hamer written and directed by Regina Taylor - Highlander Research and Education Center, New Market TN - October 2022
Sound Design / FOH engineer • 6th Annual Sugar Hill Music Festival - Harlem USA, September 2022
Production Manager • Afribembé Festival: Sankofa! - Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute - Harlem Art Park - August 2022
Production Manager • PSM • Media Design - Celebrating Greg Tate: More Than Posthuman: Rise of the Burnt Sugar Arkestra Mojosexual Cotillion - July 17 2022
Production Manager • PSM • Media Design - Downtown Urban Arts Festival 20th Anniversary Season - Theatre Row - June 2022
Sound Design • Visual Design • Composer - Black Girl Magic, Exploratory Workshop by Phanesia Pharel, dir. by Regina Taylor - LDK LaFemme Productions - Spring 2022
Sound Design - If/Then - Gallery Players - Spring 2022
Sound Design - Broken Box Mime Theater - Take Shape - Spring 2022
5.1 Theatrical Release Mix, Distribution release mix, Printmaster mixes - Deadliest Disease In America (film), dir. by Crystal Emery - Fall 2021 (Theatrical), Winter 2022
Sound Design - The Mountaintop by Katori Hall / TheatreSquared, Fayetteville AR, dir. by Vickie Washington - February 2022
Director - Craig Harris’ Harlem Sonic Communiversity Residency, film, grant - December 2021
Production Manager • SM • Sound Design - Ayodele Casel’s Chasing Magic, The Flynn VT - Winter 2021
Sound Design - Ain’t Misbehavin’ / Gallery Players, Brooklyn NY, dir. by Marty Goldin - Fall 2021
Sound Design • Original Music - And Away We Go by Terrence McNally / Gallery Players, Brooklyn NY, dir. by Mark Gallagher - Fall 2021
Sound Design • Original Music - Radium Girls by D.W. Gregory / Metropolitan Playhouse, dir. by Laura Livingston - Fall 2021
Production Manager - Craig Harris’ Nocturnal Nubian Ball for Conscientious Ballers and Cultural Shot Callers, film and recording - Bryant Park, Marcus Garvey Park, The Gatehouse @ Harlem Stage - August 2021
Sound Design - Theatre for One 2021, The Transformed Return, written and directed by Regina Taylor - August 2021
Production Manager / Media Design - Downtown Urban Arts Festival / Theater component @ Abrons Arts Center - June 2021
Production Design / Technical Director - Zoom Theater 2020/21 - New Federal Theater (8 productions); Love and Kindness in the Time of Quarantine curated/directed by Regina Taylor for Planet Connections;
Sound Design / Production Manager - Nona Hendryx - Nona Hendryx and the Disciples of Sun Ra / New York Metropolitan Museum of Art Temple of Dendur NYC - February 2020
Cinematography / Musician - Harlem to Kilimanjaro - directed by Melvin McCray - January 2020
Sound Design / Production Manager - Nona Hendryx - State of Grace @ Park Ave. Armory w/ Esperanza Spalding, Ultra Naté / Black Artists Retreat curated by Theaster Gates - Fall 2019
Production Manager / Visual Design - The Black Rock Coalition @ The Metropolitan Museum of Art present History of Our Future feat. Fantastic Negrito, Toshi Reagon, ‘Captain’ Kirk Douglas (Roots), Stew, Ronny Drayton, Vernon Reid, Corey Glover, Nona Hendryx, Carl Hancock Rux - Sept. 2019
Visual Projection Design / Sound Design - Made in Puerto Rico feat. Eli Castro at the Puerto Rican Traveling Theater - March 2019
Production Manager / Sound Design for Aaron Grant Theatricals - 2017 to present - Bulldozer: The Ballad of Robert Moses (Theater at St. Clement’s) 2017; Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (Pershing Square Signature Center) 2018; Because I Could Not Stop: An Encounter with Emily Dickinson (Signature Center) 2018; Maestro (Ensemble for the Romantic Century @ The Duke on 42nd St.) 2019; Hans Christian Andersen: Tales Real and Imagined (ERC @ The Duke on 42nd St.) Spring 2019
Technical Production Assistance - ‘Til Victory Is Won @ Brooklyn Public Library w/Liza Jessie Peterson, Greg Tate, Barron Claiborne, Sekou Odinga, Gabri Christa, Nicole Hannah-Jones, Saidiya Hartman,
Sound Design / Production - Nona Hendryx - Refrigerated Dreams w/ Carrie Mae Weems - Joe’s Pub - Fall 2018
Production Manager - The Shape of Things @ Park Ave. Armory curated by Carrie Mae Weems - Craig Harris Orchestra - 2017
Production Manager / PSM / Visual Design - All The Woo In The World - Benefit concert for Bernie Worrell curated by Black Rock Coalition w/ Nona Hendryx feat. Meryl Streep, David Byrne, Bootsy Collins, George Clinton, BRC Orchestra, Living Colour, Buckethead, Jerry Harrison, Leo Nocentelli, Jon Batiste, Paul Schaefer & WMD Band, Rick Springfield - 2016
Visual Design / Sound Design (Media Design) – A View From The Bridge / John Jay College, dir. by Lorraine Moller – Fall 2017; Twilight: Los Angeles1992, same dir. / John Jay College - 2016
Production Manager/Technical Director/Lighting and Media Design – Downtown Urban Theater Festival, Here Theater NYC, 2015 - 2021 • DUAF
Visual and Sound Designer - Schoolhouse Theater - 2013-2020
Sound Design - Metropolitan Playhouse - Walk Hard - 2016; Shadow of Heroes - 2018
Director / Media Design – 2/4/Three w/ Vincent Chancey, Newman Taylor Baker, Roulette Intermedium – February 2018
Bassist - Lawdy Miss Clawdy / The Lloyd Price Story (now Personality) workshop - Shelton Becton / MD - February 2018
Visual Design – Adam / New Federal Theatre 2017
Visual Design – Zora / New Federal Theatre 2017
Visual Design – Sarah Sings A Love Story / Crossroads Theatre 2017
Sound Design - The Day Before Heaven / Kumble Theater 2016
Sound Design – Walk Hard / Metropolitan Playhouse 2016
Sound and Visual Design – Sugar Ray / New Federal Theater prod. 2016
Sound and Visual Design – Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 – John Jay College 2016
Production Manager/Technical Director – New Federal Theatre GALA Tribute to Melvin Van Peebles & Novella Nelson / 2016
Actor/Musician/score – In White America / New Federal Theatre 2016
Visual Design – Most Dangerous Man In America, by Amiri Baraka / NFT, 2015
Sound Design/Video Design – Dutchman by Amiri Baraka – Castillo Theater / NFT / NBTC / Black Arts Festival 2015
Production Designer/Technical Director – Dark Wonderland Performance Series, Green-wood Cemetery w/ MAPP International, curated by Brian Tate @ TateStrategies w/ Alicia Hall Moran, Graham Haynes, Vernon Reid • 2015
Technical Director / Sound Design - Gavin Brown’s Enterprise / Harlem w/ Alicia Hall Moran, Arthur Jafa, Tamar-Kali et.al • 2017-2019
Technical Director, Production Manager, Sound Engineer, Lighting Designer for Vision Festival, 2004 – 2014 www.visionfestival.org
Miriam Parker Dance/Jo Wood-Brown installation @ White Box, Soho 2014
Sound and Video Design – Black Wall Street, Andrew Freedman Home 2014
Sound Designer/Video Design – DuBois & Miss Ovington, New Federal Theater 2014
Sound Design/Video Design - The Sun Shines East 2014
Sound Design/Video Design – Black Wall Street 2014
Sound Design/Visual Design – The Fabulous Miss Marie, NFT, 2014
Director, Tongues of Fire Choir – Apollo Theater 2013
Production Manager, LD, Garth Fagan Dance 2013
Sound & Video Production – Lies My Father Told Me, National Yiddish Theater Folksbiene – 2013, Ken Larson - Production Manager
Sound Design - Knock Me A Kiss, Crossroads Theater, with André De Shields, dir. Chuck Smith - 2012
Lighting Design – BRC Tribute to Gil Scott-Heron, Symphony Space 2011
Won Audelco Award* in Sound Design for New Federal Theater’s Knock Me A Kiss with André De Shields dir. 2011
National Yiddish Theater Folksbiene “Hershele Ostropolyer” 2010 / Ken Larson – Production Manager
Sound Designer, Engineer, Marc Bamuthi Joseph’s the break/s National Tour 2009
Recording and live engineer Craig Harris’ God’s Trombones, Milan Italy (dir. Avery Brooks) 2008
Sound Designer, Black Nativity, Classical Theater of Harlem, 2007
Sound Designer, Marat/Sade, Classical Theater of Harlem, 2007
Production Manager and Sound Designer, touring production of Almost Heaven: The Songs of John Denver, 2007
Composer, Sound Designer, Production Manager, touring production of Sekou Sundiata’s 51st Dream State, 2004-2006
Producer, Tracie Morris's one-woman show Afrofuturistic, The Kitchen, (dir. Laurie Carlos) 2003
Sound Designer and Sound Engineer, touring production of Marlies Yearby & Craig Harris's Brown Butterfly, 2002 – 2004
Composer, Sound Designer and Production Manager/LD - National Tour of Sekou Sundiata's blessing the boats (dir. Rhodessa Jones) 2001 – 2005
Production Manager, Engineer, Guitar - Sekou Sundiata’s Long Story Short Tour w/ Ani DiFranco Rhythm and News Tour, 2001
Production Manager and Sound Engineer, touring production of Craig Harris and Sekou Sundiata's opera UDU, 2000-2001
Sound Design, Def Dance Jam , 1995-2000, after-school perfoming arts and academic program for deaf, hearing and physically-challenged teens. Aziza Reid founder and choreographer
Additional theatrical credits as musical director, production manager, sound designer, and composer include work with Brown University's Rites & Reason Theater, New Voices/Aaron Davis Hall, The American Theater Festival, NPR Radio Theater, Carl Hancock Rux, Lisa Jones' Rodeo Caldonia, Ubu Theatre, NYSF, NEC, Amiri Baraka, The New Federal Theater, Crossroads Theater, Dianne McIntyre/Olu Dara, Def Dance Jam, Cleveland Contemporary Dance, Judith Jackson, Latino Experimental Fantastic Theatre and the Audelco Awards, among others.
Sound Design Installations, in collaboration with visual artist Shimon Attie:
Light Under Night, 3-channel video installation, sound design in 5.1, commissioned by Hydro Norsk - performed before the Royal Family at the Konserthus in Oslo, Norway, December 2005. U.S.debut at the Miami Museum of Art in 2006.
Re/collecting: A Centennial Installation – surround soundscape, laser and hologram installation commissioned by The Jewish Museum in New York, 2004
Additional Selected Event Planning and Production
Technical Director, Production Manager for Operation Crossroads Africa – Service of Thanksgiving and African Feast at the U.N. - 2008
Production Manager for National Urban League Annual Convention – The Temptations / mainstage entertainment 1999
Music Industry
Selected highlights from an extensive career as a record producer, musical director, international tour producer, manager, sound engineer, and performer from 1978 - present. Produced and performed music on stages from the Tokyo Dome to The Montreux Jazz festival. Performed at and brought acts to The Vienna Jazz Festival, The North Sea Jazz Festival, The Pori and Nice Jazz Festivals, the Glastonbury Music Festival, Roskilde, and innumerable clubs and arenas across the U.S., Europe, and Japan.
Founding member and former President of the Black Rock Coalition, (1986) and conductor of the BRC Orchestra on many of its overseas tours and stateside performances
Producer - Craig Harris tours, concerts and recordings since 1990 < missed the recording for Judas and the Black Messiah due to COVID (damn it!) >. Congratulations. Production manager for Craig Harris’ Nation of Imagination feat. Marshall Allen - Nocturnal Nubian Ball for Conscientious Ballers and Cultural Shot Callers @ Bryant Park, Marcus Garvey Park, Gatehouse Performance Space at CCNY/ August 2021
Tour Manager / FOH Engineer - Living Colour at the Newport Jazz Festival - 2018
Recording and live engineer Craig Harris’ God’s Trombones, Milan Italy (dir. Avery Brooks) 2008
Technical Director, Production manager (2009, 2010), Sound Engineer, Patricia and William Parker’s Vision Festival, 2004 – present
Production Manager and Technical Director, Gift of Life Concert at the Apollo Theater, featuring Nona Hendryx, Vernon Reid, Sekou Sundiata, and Danny Glover, 2005
Sound Engineer and Guitar, Sekou Sundiata, the opening act on Ani DiFranco’s Rhythm and News Tour, 2001
Production Manager, The Tongues of Fire Choir, Aaron Davis Hall, 1996
Executive Producer of Me'Shell NdegéOcello’s three-time Grammy-nominated debut album Plantation Lullabies. Discovered, produced, and managed Me’shell and her international and US tours with Beverly Jenkins from 1988-93
Recording Engineer / Mix / Producer - Souls Within The Veil - Craig Harris 2005
Sound Engineer, Diana King’s 1994 European tour, MTV Euro awards
Manager, Producer, Screaming Headless Torsos, 1989-93
Musical Director with Arrested Development, Saturday Night Live, Christopher Walken Season 18 Episode 4 • 10/24/1992
Musical Director, Caron Wheeler’s (of Soul to Soul) UKBlak tour of U.S., Japan/US 1991
Early work as a Tour Manager: Glenn Jones, 1991; Tony Terry, 1987-88; Starpoint/Cameo, 1986-87; Bassist & Tour Manager Noel Pointer, 1979-82
Recent Film Projects
The Deadliest Disease in America, produced and directed by Crystal Emery / Music Composition, Sound Design, Stereo audio Mix, 5.1 mix design and conform for theatrical presentation. Cinema Village Theaters NYC - August 2021
Producer/Editor “Been Down This Road Before” music video for Clifton Anderson
“Con Sana Alegria” (2016) sound design, dir. Claudia Muñiz (Cuba) short film • Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival 2017, Havana Film Festival NYC 2017
“Facing Slavery: Princeton Family Stories” (2017) sound design consultant, dir. Melvin McCray, 55 mins.
“Black Women in Medicine” (2016) score, dir. Crystal Emery
“The Price of Memory” (2014) sound design, dir. Karen Mafundikwa (Jamaica, W.I.)
“NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF) Industrial” (2012) sound design, post/mastering, producer Don Perry (Chimpanzee Productions)
“Promised Land” (2010) sound design, dir. Yoruba Richen, POV on PBS.
“Billy and Aaron” (2010) sound design, dir. Rodney Evans, short film
Educational film on Afro-Cuban culture, currently in production in Cuba and New York City
“Backstory: the Making of Precious Cargo” (2008) co-dir., co-prod. 2008
“Like Twenty Impossibles” (2003) dir. Annemarie Jacir. Invited to the 2003 Cannes Film Festival as an Official Selection of The Cinefoundation, as well as being nominated as a regional finalist in the 2003 Student Acadamy Awards.
Selected List of Film Scores, credited as a Composer
The Deadliest Disease in America, produced and directed by Crystal Emery / Music Composition, Sound Design, Stereo audio Mix, 5.1 mix design and conform for theatrical presentation. Cinema Village Theaters NYC - August 2021
Hughes' Dream Harlem directed by Jamal Joseph which debuted on the Black Starz Movie Channel in 2002, and was recently picked up by PBS.
Paul Robeson: Here I Stand, produced for American Masters/PBS and premiered in February 1999, directed by St. Clair Bourne. Winner of the Strand Award for Best Documentary from the Int’l Documentary Assn.
Innocent Until Proven Guilty directed by Kirsten Johnson which was invited to the 1999 Berlin Film Festival and won an Honorable Mention at the 1999 Urban World Film Festival. “Innocent” can be seen on the HBO Signature channel.
The Deadliest Disease in America directed by Crystal Emery, produced by Sam Pollard – 2008
Teaching
Experience teaching courses and conducting seminars on music and film production, entertainment law, intellectual property rights, sound design, and cultural studies at Columbia University, SUNY/Empire State College, SVA NYC (School of Visual Arts) Sound Design for Film Seminar, Third World Newsreel, Reel Works Teen Filmmaking (Brooklyn NY), Bennett College, Southern Vermont College, La Escuela Internacionál del Cine y Televisión in San Antonio de los Baños, Cuba, and by invitation of the Mayor’s Office of Film and Television NYC.
Links
Please click links embedded in items above.
IMDB https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1475671/
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/bill-toles-b013476/
Elevated Moon
https://www.elevatedmoon.com/bill-toles.html
Review: In ‘Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein,’ a Monster to Love
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/27/theater/review-in-mary-shelleys-frankenstein-robert-fairchild.html
Review: Brown Butterfly / DANCE REVIEW; Jabbing, Feinting Through the Grand Life of Muhammad Ali by Jennifer Dunning (NY Times may be behind pay wall)
Software
Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere, Logic Studio, Digidesign Pro Tools, QLab, Vectorworks, Excel, MSWord, Powerpoint, iWorks, Isadora, Watchout, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Audition, Adobe After Effects, 48K/24-bit/192kHz capability/up to 7.1 surround
Education
MFA Film Program, City College of New York, 1998-2000
Graduate Studies in Music Composition, Juilliard School of Music 1983-1988
Arranging Studies w/ Don Sebesky
B.S., Howard University, 1979
Favorite (surprised) Quotes/Testimonies:
“How come I can hear everything!!??… Oh, right... !!” - Maureen Mahon / Shrine For The Black Madonna, Brooklyn 2022
“That was great! I could hear everything. …Were their microphones?” (1) T2 / 2021; (2) The Gallery Players 2021