David Kahn’s ears are trained to pick up on sounds that other people miss—the whirr of an air conditioner, the buzz of a lighting system, the faint woosh of a car driving by—and that can easily diminish the quality of a live performance in a concert hall or an opera house. His job as an acoustics designer is to block those noises out and create the total silence needed for spectators to fully appreciate a performance. “If it’s silent, the audience will literally hold their breath,” Kahn ’83 MS IDF says. The greater the difference between the softest and loudest sounds, he says, the more dramatic the performance.

As the founder of New York-based Acoustic Distinctions, Kahn has worked on such projects as the Kennesaw State University Concert Hall (where the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra has often played), the historic Southern Theater in Columbus, Ohio, and the Pullo Center on the campus of Penn State York. He recommends the addition of variable acoustics elements to the spaces he designs to allow optimization of the sounds for various types of performances.

Being a musician himself helps: Kahn played the trumpet in high school and continued taking lessons while earning his undergraduate degree in engineering at Columbia University, where he studied under the late Cyril Harris, a giant in acoustics. Harris directed Kahn to Penn State’s master’s program in acoustics, which under the leadership of Jiri Tichy was one of the leading programs of that time.

Having such a discerning ear is “both a blessing and a curse,” Kahn says. Even while enjoying simple pleasures like dining in a restaurant, he can’t help constantly dissecting the sound.