Women In Lighting (WIL) has recently released two new Ayrton-sponsored interviews with female lighting designers: Nashville-based Sooner Routhier, an award-winning designer, producer and director, who has worked with an impressive list of headline artists including KISS, The Weeknd, Motley Crüe, Muse, Rhianna and, currently, Coldplay; and LA-based Emmanuelle ‘Gigi’ Pėdron, a French-born lighting designer who has worked with the likes of Queens of the Stone Age, My Chemical Romance, Garbage and Prince.WIL is a global project co-founded by Sharon Stammers and Martin Lupton of Light Collective to promote the work of women lighting designers across the entertainment industry.

There are more than 160 interviews with respected female lighting practitioners on the WIL website at www.womeninlighting.com, and sharing these is a key way of raising awareness of the project.

Sooner Routhier is a creative powerhouse in the live music industry and, through Sooner Rae Creative, has redefined entertainment lighting and production, whilst also mentoring bright new talent. In her interview with WIL co-founder, Sharon Stammers, Routhier talks about her initiation and pathway into lighting, her inspirations, collaborations and creative processes. She also speaks of the challenges of turning ideas into reality and the logistical challenges that are the legacy of the pandemic, touches on the issue of sustainability and keeping up with technology, and gives some advice to women starting out in entertainment lighting. The full WIL interview is available here: https://youtu.be/y2FtoQ9VgfE

‍Emmanuelle ‘Gigi’ Pedron is a lighting design graduate of the School of Fine Arts of Lorient in France. Having worked in live music for over 20 five years, Pedron tells Stammers how her artistic curiosity brought her to discover lighting design as her medium. She talks about the importance of networking, collaboration, working within budget and her famous customised consoles, and shares thoughts on LED lighting, new technology and the architects, artists and Lds, who inspire her. As a passionate music lover, a true connection with the music and the bands she works with is intrinsic to Pedron’s designs, as is her unusual condition of chromesthesia - the ability to ‘hear the colour’ of a song. Pedron also speaks of her biggest challenges and her attitude to working as a woman in the live music industry.

Listen to her conversation with Stammers here: https://youtu.be/008UmsvjYeY