Mike Hallenbeck

Mike Hallenbeck is a sound designer, composer, and educator. He welcomes the opportunity to share the excitement of audio that inspires and communicates. His studio Cool Cat Audio provides sound and music services for film, animation, and other media. He also works as a producer, mixer, and mastering engineer for music artists.

Installations featuring Hallenbeck’s work have exhibited at such venues as Art In General (NYC), Around the Coyote (Chicago), and the Minnesota Museum of American Art (St Paul).

Hallenbeck’s sound design and scores have appeared in award winning films and animation, screened around the world at events and venues like Ann Arbor Film Festival, Pictoplasma Berlin, Anthology Film Archives, and Square Lake Music and Film Festival. Recent sound edit and mix for film include Chris Newberry’s feature documentary “Echoes in the Night: The Search for Jacob Wetterling”, which earned a Best of Fest award at the Minneapolis- St Paul international Film Festival.

In addition to teaching at MCAD, Hallenbeck serves on the Program Advisory Committee of the Century College Narrative Video Production department. He has also taught Sound Design for Film at Film North, created a musical score (collaboratively with students) for Sophocles’ “Antigone” at Macalester College, and has presented as a guest lecturer in classes at Century, Macalester, Institute for Production Recording, and University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point.