Summary:
Australian startup Sottovoce has developed a real-time performance management platform to help orchestras monitor and reduce musicians’ noise exposure, promoting safer, more sustainable hearing health practices across the performing arts industry.

Key Takeaways:

  • Real-time protection: Sottovoce’s wireless Aria Tags and cloud-based platform give orchestras live data on individual musicians’ sound exposure, enabling immediate action to prevent hearing damage.
  • Industry adoption: Early users such as the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Orchestra Victoria report improved safety, awareness, and resource management through detailed noise insights.
  • Cultural shift: By combining technology with education and accountability, Sottovoce aims to foster a proactive culture of hearing conservation and wellbeing across the global orchestral community.

How can musicians keep their hearing safe, while still performing at their best? One Australian startup aims to help them do exactly that.

In recognition of Australia’s National Safe Work Month held throughout October 2025, Sottovoce reinforces the importance of occupational hearing health in orchestras. Studies show professional musicians are almost four times more likely to develop noise-induced hearing loss and 57% more likely to suffer tinnitus than the general population, with up to 70% of classical musicians showing measurable hearing loss. With no medical cure, monitoring and prevention are the only solutions. The urgency was reinforced by the landmark Goldscheider vs Royal Opera House (2019) ruling, which awarded £750,000 to a musician and confirmed orchestras are legally accountable for preventing hearing damage.

Sottovoce is reportedly the first real-time performance management system designed for musicians, orchestras, and performing arts organizations worldwide. Beyond monitoring, it’s designed to enable orchestras to use insights to drive positive cultural change, creating safer, more supportive environments that help musicians preserve their craft. Every day, musicians face exposure to high noise levels, and this provides a tool for orchestras to address this challenge comprehensively.

How Sottovoce Works

Already in use by Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Victoria, and the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, Sottovoce combines compact wireless Aria Tags with powerful software to provide live, real-time insights into stage sound, musician noise exposure, and overall wellbeing.

“The Tags are tiny, placed to monitor each musician, and invisible to audiences,” said Elissa Seed, production manager, Sydney Symphony Orchestra. “The heat map helps us deploy our resources effectively, whether that’s telling musicians to use their own PPE or to use other mitigation methods. Having all this information on the cloud, accessible from any computer, device, or phone at any time is incredibly convenient.”

Taking Action for Hearing Loss Prevention

For musicians on stage, the reassurance is personal, as David Elton, principal trumpet of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, illustrates. “Hearing health is really important for musicians these days, and I’m excited about Sottovoce, which monitors sound in real-time and shows both the volume around us and what we produce,” Elton says. “The Aria Tag doesn’t record sound as we are playing, it simply measures sound levels, whilst giving orchestra management a live feed of the stage volume.” 

Once hearing is damaged, it can’t be restored to its original state. Sottovoce is designed to give musicians like David Elton and the orchestras he works with real-time protection, helping him make smarter choices on stage and prolonging the years he can perform at his best.

As one of the early adopters of Sottovoce, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra helped shape the platform’s design and some of its bespoke features.

Rosie Marks-Smith, senior advisor for culture and wellbeing at Sydney Symphony Orchestra, added: “Being involved early allowed us to influence features that benefit our musicians and administration, and hopefully the broader orchestral industry.”

According to Sottovoce, until now, progress has been limited because orchestras simply haven’t had the tools to close the gap. They argue that venue acoustics, general noise measurement, and PPE alone aren’t enough. And that one issue was that orchestras couldn’t see what each musician was experiencing in real-time. That’s where Sottovoce changes everything, according to the company.

For Kat Houy, production manager at Orchestra Victoria, the benefits are immediate. “Sottovoce real-time data lets us act if levels get too high,” she says. “It enhances musician safety and creates a more proactive working environment.”

Tackling Noise Exposure as an Industry

The importance of tackling noise exposure as an industry issue was a central theme at the Orchestras NOW! conference in Wrocław, Poland in September 2025. Experts from the BBC Philharmonic, ARUP, and The Medical College of NCU in Bydgoszcz joined Sottovoce Co-Founder Tony David Cray in a panel discussion exploring how orchestras can better support musician wellbeing. The panel addressed the challenges of stage layout, repertoire planning, acoustics, and hearing protection, and the fact that musicians have often been left to manage noise exposure on their own. Without reliable, real-time data, orchestras have struggled to act. Technology like Sottovoce was highlighted as a breakthrough, giving orchestras the detailed visibility they need to create safer and more sustainable performance environments.

“Many orchestras are exploring new approaches to player comfort, but progress is limited without reliable, real-time data. That’s the gap Sottovoce fills,” said Sottovoce Co-Founder Cray.

Des O’Neill, Sottovoce Co-Founder and CEO, says the goal is clear: “Sottovoce isn’t just about measurement. It’s about empowering orchestras to make smarter data driven decisions, while ensuring artists thrive on stage, and helping build a culture that values and protects musicians’ hearing. We see this as the future of live performance.”

Sottovoce has been showcased internationally, most recently at the League of American Orchestras Conference in Salt Lake City and the ABO Conference in the UK in early 2025 and was recognized with an Australian Good Design Award in 2024.

About Sottovoce

Pioneered by sound designer and audio engineer Des O’Neill and Grammy award-winning studio engineer and software developer Tony David Cray, Sottovoce is a hardware and software solution primarily serving the performing arts industry that provides real-time noise exposure data for musicians. Aimed at reducing noise-induced hearing loss, this innovative solution equips each musician and performing arts organizations with real-time insights to enhance auditory health and transform safety practices in the performing arts industry.

For more information, visit www.Sottovoce.io. 

Featured image: Sottovoce in action with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Photo: Sottovoce