JT Wint ’25. Photo by Mr. Michael Aldridge.
Northwood alum JT Wint ’25 spent this year’s winter concert in a familiar place but with a new role. Instead of sitting in the crowd, he was up in the light booth helping run the show with senior Jacob Slagel ’26.
Wint came back to campus while he was home on break between college semesters. His mom, faculty member Lisa Wint, brought him as a guest for the formal dinner, and he decided to stay for the concert.
For Wint, the winter concert has always been part of his Northwood story. When he was a student, it pushed him out of his comfort zone in a good way.
“It was fun,” he said. “Definitely out of my comfort zone, but it got better as the years went by. I think it was very positive.”
One of his clearest memories is from his first year.
The Northwood School Light Board. Photo by Jacob Slagel.
“Probably my favorite memory was with Sophia Sherman ’25,” Wint said. “She read a poem, and I did the slide whistle and a little bit of drums for a Bruce Springsteen song, ‘Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town.’ That was probably the most memorable.”
This year, instead of playing on stage, he stepped into the light booth. From there, the view of the concert shifts. You see the same stage and the same crowd, but you also see all the details that most people never notice.
“It is a little muffled up there,” he said, “but you get the same view. You are just paying more attention to detail than many other people might. You are making sure the lights are correct and in the right positions.”
Working in the booth meant focusing on timing and coordination. Each song needed a different look, and the cues had to match the music. Wint said the atmosphere while he and Slagel ran the board felt focused.
“The energy was very professional,” Wint said. “You get straight to the point. You have to be ahead of the game.”
He was not worried about missing any crucial moments.
“I do not think there was a cue I was really nervous about,” he said. “Jacob was on top of it, so there were no worries.”
This was not Wint’s first time on lights. He thinks he has worked the booth “two or three years,” though he does not remember exactly which ones. The system itself has not changed much since he graduated, but coming back as an alum gave him a different perspective.
As a student, the concert felt like a big night where everyone dressed up, performed, or watched friends on stage. Now he sees more of the planning behind it.
He did not see the pre-show setup this year, but he knows there is more going on than people expect.
“It seems like it is just clicking buttons,” he said, “but it is really about coordination and making sure you have it planned out well.”
Wint thinks the light booth is a good place for students who are curious about tech to start. The board looks complicated at first, but he believes it is manageable with support.
“If a student wants to volunteer, I think it is easy enough to learn,” he said. “With the right mentor, you would be pretty set.”
For one night, that mentor was a current student, and the alum was the one stepping back into the system he used as a teenager. The roles had flipped, but the goal was the same as it has always been at the winter concert, whether you are on the stage, in the crowd, or up in the booth.
Make the show happen, and make it feel special.
