Kirkwood High School student newspaper

The Kirkwood Call

Kirkwood High School student newspaper

The Kirkwood Call

Kirkwood High School student newspaper

The Kirkwood Call

They did what? Anthony Alvarez, Spanish teacher and former sound engineer

Before teaching Spanish, Anthony Alvarez worked with completely different form of communication: music. As a sound engineer for clubs and bands during the ‘90s, Alvarez spent his college years around growing musical talents such as Ben Folds, 311 and Rusted Root.
“It was actually really addictive,” Alvarez said. “Not only could I listen to live music, but it became my job as I got better and better.”
Going to school at Williams College in North Carolina, Alvarez began tinkering with sound mixing at small music clubs around town until he finally landed a job at a larger venue called Cat’s Cradle. Much like The Pageant located in St. Louis, the club was a musical hotspot for the area, holding thousands of fans. As the house sound technician, Alvarez was in full control of what the audience heard of the band on stage. To give musicians optimal sound quality during live shows, “sound guys” constantly adjustment and mix microphone and speaker levels during the show.
“Live sound engineering is kind of like performing with the band,” Alvarez said. “I won’t give myself too much credit because the band starts it all, but obviously I’m sure people have been to a show where they say ‘Oh, I can’t hear this,’ and it ruins the show. It could make you like or not like a band if you didn’t already.”
After working as the house engineer for Cat’s Cradle, Alvarez began touring with the alternative rock band Jump Little Children, meeting and working with artists such as Rusted Root and Carlos Santana. After enrolling in the College of Charlestown to finish his undergraduate degree, he used his night job as a sound technician for a local Charlestown club to help pay the bills. But after moving to St. Louis to work for a graduate degree from Washington University, working from 5 p.m.-4 a.m. sounded less and less appealing—literally.
“At some point, I knew it would make my hearing worse,” Alvarez said.
Alvarez walked away from his job to pursue teaching Spanish first at Washington University and SLU and later to KHS. With no more than a slight loss of hearing in his left ear from a Motorhead concert, Alvarez has no regrets from his life as sound engineer.
“I definitely miss it,” Alvarez said. “But I can still hear more or less, so that’s good.”

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They did what? Anthony Alvarez, Spanish teacher and former sound engineer