Arts management major with. music industry concentration
Runtagh Scholarship in the Arts, May A Waring Scholarship
Working in the Sottile Theatre, exploring opportunities in live and recorded sound – from music production to theatrical design – and serving as a foley operator during one of the Spoleto Festival USA operas.
Amelia Hawke Tebalt discovered her love for playing music when she started learning the tenor banjo at age 5, an instrument she inherited from her great-great uncle.
Over the years, Tebalt developed into a singer-songwriter and multifaceted musician who also plays the clawhammer banjo, traditional Appalachian fiddle and guitar. She writes in a style she broadly describes as Americana, drawing from Appalachian and New Orleans traditions.
She came to the College of Charleston specifically for the music industry concentration in the arts management major.
“As a musician and songwriter, I really wanted to do the music industry Arts Management Program because I didn’t want to be taken advantage of,” says the recipient of the Runtagh Scholarship in the Arts and May A Waring Scholarship. “I wanted to know the business side, which has been really helpful – like arts financial management, policy in the arts, those are really stellar classes that have made me more secure going into being an artist.”
But along the way, she discovered an unexpected passion for sound design.
“I didn’t know what sound design was before I came here,” she says. That changed after Lauren Duffie ’99, assistant professor of lighting design and technology, encouraged Tebalt to try sound design, a skill she showed clear strength in.
During her time at the College, Tebalt designed sound for four productions, each requiring a different creative approach – from composing early 1900s-inspired music for The Importance of Being Earnest to building layered, immersive soundscapes for Dracula, a production that earned her the 2025 American College Theatre Festival National Sound Design Excellence Award. She was named runner-up for this same award in 2026.
“Anything you’re hearing is usually supposed to be intentionally created by me,” she says of sound design, describing a process that can include composing music, engineering sound effects and creating live foley elements.
Outside the theater, Tebalt continued expanding her skill set through leadership roles as co-manager of the production team for 1770 Records and programming director for Cistern Yard Radio, where she supports student media and studio development.
“In the arts, you kind of have to be multifaceted,” she says. “I can run a live sound system. I can be the person designing the sound. I can be the musician on stage, and I’m happy doing any of those. I like being involved in the performing arts in almost any aspect.”