A note from the Artistic Director

I am extremely grateful for the incredible support Singing OnStage Productions has received in the last year and a half. From the readings of new musicals like Harmony, Kansas and Nightfall, to our production of Side by Side by Sondheim at the Laurie Beechman, to our Music Director Weekend Intensive and Artists Connect Events, our little company did some amazing things with your help and support.

For the time being, however, I have to put Singing OnStage on “hold” as I have accepted the position of Executive/Artistis Director of The State Theatre in State College, Pennsylvania. This is a true “community” theatre, hosting national music and theatre events, independent, foreign, and classic film, and local arts and community groups.

My vision for The State includes the development of new musicals, so I hope I can combine the work of Singing OnStage and my new position and continue the important work of forwarding the writing and production of new musical theatre for the 21st Century.

I thank you for your generous and enthusiastic support of Singing OnStage!

Warmly,

Richard Biever, Artistic Director

Music Director Training Program

Because Artistic Director Richard Biever has recently been hired as Executive Director of The State Theatre in State College, PA, Singing OnStage Productions will not offer the spring MD classes. If we are able to offer the class in the future you will find that information here!

Just a few of comments from Music Directors who attended our first Singing OnStage Productions Weekend Intensive, Sept. 16-18:

“Wonderful panelists with a wealth of insight. Working Broadway professionals sharing their knowledge and experience in an intimate setting. A personal and remarkable program, well balanced and actually inspiring for the budding MD.”

“Absolute top of the line MD’s, Conductors, Voice Teachers, Arrangers, Orchestrators, Composers, Directors, Choreographers, and Music Entrepeuners all giving back to the new generation of MD’s! What’s not to like? “

“Excellent practical advice, humour, passion and compassion – and that was just the first day!”

“I’ve been a professional musical director for the last ten years; the MD Intensive taught me more in a weekend than I have learned in a decade. I was so inspired, I couldn’t wait to get home to go over my notes and start putting things into practice.  I carry my notebook with me every day now, so whenever I have some free time, I go back and look at my notes, and start getting a new action plan together! This weekend answered so many questions that I’ve had for years. I cannot thank you enough!”

“[The Intensive] has redefined my concept of modern music directing.”

 

Broadway MD David Chase giving the opening talk with Artistic Director Richard Biever, Orchestrator Michael Starobin and Director Carl Andress

Michael Starobin, Carl Andress, Stafford Arima, and Denis Jones discussing Collaboration.

Singing OnStage Artistic Director Richard Biever worked consistently as an MD for 20 years doing regional/stock and national/international tours and brings that background to these classes. Each topic will feature guests artists– working professionals who will bring their up-to-the-minute experience to the table. Additionally, Singing OnStage will help hook up participants with theatre companies looking for qualified MDs.

One-of-a-Kind Opportunity for Music Directors

• Are you a talented pianist who needs to better understand vocal production?
• How do MD’s collaborate with directors, choreographers, arrangers, and actors?
• Are you stymied when asked to come up with orchestral reductions?
• What about conducting from the keyboard?
• Are you up to speed with the history of musical theatre and how the past has brought us to the present?
• How can you make a living as a music director in these tough economic times?

Singing OnStage Productions is thrilled to be the first company anywhere to offer an on-going Music Director Training Program for those who have piano skills but need to develop the myriad other skills necessary to be a successful musical director. Skills and ideas covered will include the above list and more!

 

Our MDWeekend Intensive Schedule

Friday, September 16

6 pm  Mixer

6:30 pm Opening Talk: David Chase, MD of How to Succeed, Music Supervisor of Billy Elliot

7-8 pm Collaboration  Panelists: Orchestrator/MD Michael Starobin, MD Eric Stern, Director Stafford Arima, Director Carl Andress, and Choreographer Denis Jones

8-9 pm Reducing Orchestrations Panelists: Michael Starobin, Eric Stern, MD Dan Riddle

9-10 pm Music Software  Panelists: Dan Riddle. Composer/Arranger David Wolfson

Saturday, September 17

10-11 am Conducting  Panelists: MD/Composer David Evans, Teacher of Conducting Constantine Kitsopoulos, MD Jeffrey Klitz

11 am-12 noon The Voice  Master Voice Teacher Mary Saunders-Barton, Voice Teacher/Performer D. Michael Heath

12 noon-1 pm MD as Teacher/Performer; The Bigger Picture Panelists: David Chase, David Evans, Henry Aronson

1-2:30 LUNCH (Not provided)

2:30-3:30 Rehearsal Techniques Panelists: Dan Riddle, Richard Biever

3:30-4:30 The Composer  Panelists: Adam Gwon (Ordinary Days, The Boy Detective Fails) and Anna K. Jacobs (POP!, Harmony, Kansas)

4:30-5:30 YOU, Inc.– Running a biz as MD  Panelist: Producer Michael Roderick

5:30-6 pm Mixer/networking

Sunday, September 18

1-2 pm Vocal Arranging  Panelists: David Chase, more TBA

2-3 pm Playing Styles  Panelists: Dan Riddle, Richard Biever

3-3:30  BREAK

3:30-4:30 Story Telling/Wrap Up Q&A  Richard Biever

4:30-5 pm Networking

Panelists and instructors will include top Broadway music directors: David Chase (HOW TO SUCCEED and BILLY ELLIOT), David Evans (WICKED, HELLO, AGAIN; composer: BIRDS OF PARADISE, CHILDREN’S LETTERS TO GOD), Eric Stern, and Henry Aaronson (ROCK OF AGES). Orchestrator Michael Starobin ( SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE and THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE) and composers Adam Gwon (ORDINARY DAYS and THE BOY DETECTIVE FAILS) and Anna Jacobs (POP! and HARMONY, KANSAS), voice teacher Mary Saunders, and producer Michael Roderick (THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS).

BIOS of panelists and instructors: DAVID CHASE (Music Director/Arranger) is currently Music Director and Arranger for How To Succeed In Business and Music Supervisor for the North American productions of Billy Elliot. Additional Broadway (as Dance Arranger): Anything Goes, Elf, Promises, Promises, The Little Mermaid, Cry-baby, Curtains, The Wedding Singer, The Pajama Game, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Flower Drum Song, Kiss Me, Kate, Seussical, Side Show, and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Broadway (as Music Director/Supervisor): The Pajama Game with Harry Connick, Jr., Flower Drum Song, The Music Man, Side Show, Little Me, Damn Yankees. London (as Dance Arranger): Evita and Guys and Dolls with Ewan McGregor. Also: many arrangements for the Boston Pops (including The Twelve Days of Christmas), arrangements and musical supervision for the Radio City Christmas Spectacular and Disney’s On the Record, and dance music and orchestrations for the feature film Beyond the Sea. Upcoming Broadway projects include a transfer of the London Evita, plus dance music for Nice Work If You Can Get It and Robin and the Seven Hoods. Musical training:  Biology degree from Harvard University.

ERIC STERN (Music Director/Arranger) is one of Broadway’s busiest conductor/arrangers with 19 Broadway shows and 36 CDs to his credit.  His Broadway shows include SHREK, XANADU, FOLLIES, CANDIDE, RAGS, THE WILL ROGERS FOLLIES, SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE, SHOW BOAT, and GYPSY. He has recorded and concertized with Barbara Cook, Betty Buckley, Dawn Upshaw, Mandy Patinkin, Audra McDonald, among many others, with renowned orchestras worldwide.  He is a frequent guest conductor of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, noted for his interpretations of Bernstein, Copland and Gershwin.  Eric also recorded three reconstructions of Gershwin musicals (Lady Be Good, Pardon My English, and Oh, Kay!) as well as the popular “Leonard Bernstein’s New York”  and has won an Emmy and several Gramophone Awards.

DAVID EVANS (Composer/Music Director/Arranger) is currently Associate Conductor of WICKED on Broadway. His conducting credits include recent revivals of FLOWER DRUM SONG and BELLS ARE RINGING on Broadway, MARIE CHRISTINE and HELLO AGAIN at Lincoln Center, and HELLOMUDDAH, HELLO FADDUH, SILLS AND COMPANY and AS THOUSANDS CHEER Off-Broadway. He has conducted many regional productions, including regular appearances at Goodspeed Opera House and Sacramento Music Circus (including WEST SIDE STORY, FORUM, WONDERFUL TOWN, etc). He also served as Associate Conductor for several seasons of the Encores series at City Center. Also a composer, David Evans received a Drama Desk Nomination for his score for BIRDS OF PARADISE (written with Winnie Holzman and directed by Arthur Laurents), which ran Off-Broadway in 1987 and has since had many regional productions. His musical, CHILDREN’S LETTERS TO GOD (written with Doug Cohen and Stuart Hample), recently completed an Off-Broadway run at the Lamb’s Theater, and is currently on tour around the country. BYE, BYE BIG GUY (written with Faye Greenberg and Michael Slade) recently finished a successful run at the New York International Fringe Festival. Another show, LOVE COMICS, (with Sarah Schlesinger) has had several regional productions since it’s premiere at the George Street Playhouse. Recently presented a star-studded concert of his music at Lincoln Center, featuring Barbara Walsh, J.K. Simmons, Marybeth Peil, Jose Llana, Jenn Colella and others. He has written songs for many Off-Broadway revues, including A…MY NAME IS ALICE, and for television shows, including SESAME STREET and SQUARE ONE TV and HUGE. Also, scores for animated films, two shows for TADA, and nine shows for TheatreworksUSA.

MICHAEL STAROBIN (Orchestrator/Music Director/Composer) is a well-known orchestrator and arranger working on Broadway and in Hollywood. He has been the orchestrator for some of Broadway’s most innovative musicals such as Falsettos, Sunday in the Park with George, Assassins (2004 Tony Award for Best Orchestrations) and Next to Normal (2009 Tony Award for Best Orchestrations). He was the conductor and orchestrator for Disney’s Hunchback of Notre Dame, and recently contributed orchestrations to Disney’s Once Upon a Mattress and the film versions of Chicago and Nine.

DAN RIDDLE (Music Director/Pianist/Arranger) is currently Music Director of the School of Theatre at Penn State University and heads up the MFA program in Music Directing. Dan was the winner of numerous international piano competitions and performed as concerto soloist with the orchestras of Cleveland, Dallas, Monte Carlo, Cairo (Egypt), among others. In New York conducted the Broadway productions of Les Miserables, Titanic, A Class Act, Oklahoma, Into the Woods, Mamma Mia, Bombay Dreams, and The Light in the Piazza. Since arriving at Penn State has been music director at Wolftrap, National Theatre of Taiwan, Kansas City Starlight and The MUNY, as well as guest conductor for the Youngstown and Hartford Symphonies. Recently music directed the collegiate premiere of The Light in the Piazza at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington.

HENRY ARONSON (Music Director) is the music director of “Rock of Ages” on Broadway.  Also on Broadway, he was music director for “Grease”, “The Times They Are A-Changin’”, “In My Life”, “Little Shop of Horrors”, “Rent”, “Rocky Horror Show” and “Starmites”; associate conductor of “Cry Baby”, “Good Vibrations”, “Parade”, “Saturday Night Fever”, “Mail” and “Prince of Central Park”; and conductor of “Tarzan” and “The Who’s Tommy”, as well as conducting the Radio City Christmas Spectacular (N.Y.C.).  Off-Broadway, he was music director of “King Lear” at the Public Theatre (with Kevin Kline), “Once Around the Sun” (Zipper Theatre) and “3 Guys Naked From the Waist Down” (Minetta Lane).  He orchestrated several seasons of “Baryshnikov & Co.” and created the ballet “Pirates!” which premiered at the Queensland Ballet and has been performed worldwide. He is the composer/lyricist for the new musical “Loveless Texas”, in collaboration with his wife Cailín Heffernan.

JEFFREY KLITZ (Music Director/Arranger/Orchestrator) has worked with numerous performers, serving as music director and pianist for Judy Collins, Joel Grey, Betty Buckley, Tommy Tune, Judy Kuhn, Carol Hall and Amanda McBroom, among others. On Broadway he currently serves as music director/conductor for Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Other Broadway music director/conductor credits include Guys & Dolls (2009), Hot Feet, and Lennon; he was conductor and choral arranger for Song and Dance and On Your Toes. Other Broadway credits: Chicago, Grand Hotel and Stardust. On the acclaimed 92nd Street Y Lyrics and Lyricists series, and Lincoln Center’s American Songbook, he has appeared as music director, and at the Goodman Theatre he music directed The House of Martin Guerre, for which he earned a Joseph Jefferson Award. Producer and arranger of Tony-nominee Judy Kuhn’s CD Serious Playground, he also contributed arrangements and orchestrations to Tony-winner Vicki Clark’s Fifteen Seconds of Grace. He wrote the new orchestrations for Carol Hall’s The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas national tour starring Ann-Margret, and has arranged and orchestrated for Andrea Marcovicci. He helped found, and was arranger and accompanist for, the New York Metro Mass Choir, an inter-faith gospel choir that performed at The Apollo Theater, Avery Fisher Hall, Carnegie Hall and was featured in O Magazine and on ABC’s Good Morning America. As an arranger and producer he has worked with MPL, Paul McCartney’s music publisher. Film and television credits include arrangements and piano for Lucas, One Life to Live and All My Children, and arrangements and orchestrations for Disney’s Dumbo II.  Mr. Klitz has conducted vocal performance workshops for Broadway performers, and taught at New York University, the National Theater Institute and the Cabaret Conference at Yale. For the 2011 fall semester he will teach Arranging for Voices at Yale College. Bernadette Peters said, “I found Jeff to be wonderful”. Patti LuPone said, “I never had so much fun in my life”. Terry Teachout in The New York Times noted his “jagged downtown sensibility”. And jazz pianist/composer Bill Mays described Jeff as “one of the most interesting of all the arranger/producers I’ve worked for down through the years.”

CONSTANTINE KITSOPOULOS (Conductor/MD) has made a name for himself as a conductor whose musical experiences comfortably span the worlds of opera and symphony, where he conducts in such venues as Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall and Royal Albert Hall, and musical theater, where he can be found leading orchestras on Broadway. Mr. Kitsopoulos is in his third season as music director of the Queens Symphony Orchestra and continues as general director of Chatham Opera, which he founded in 2005. This season Mr. Kitsopoulos also makes debuts with the New York Pops, Colorado Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Houston Symphony, Elgin Symphony and Westchester Philharmonic. In addition to his orchestral and classical commitments, Mr. Kitsopoulos is much in demand as a theatre conductor, both on Broadway and nationwide. This past season, Mr. Kitsopoulos was conductor and music director for the Tony nominated musical “A Catered Affair.” In 2007, he conducted the Tony nominated “Coram Boy” and the American Conservatory Theatre production of Kurt Weill’s “Happy End,” for which he recorded the cast album at Skywalker Ranch. Other musical theatre highlights include serving as Music Director and Principal Conductor of Baz Luhrmann’s highly acclaimed production of Puccini’s “La Bohème”, conducting the new musical “Mambo Kings” in San Francisco in 2005, serving s Music Director of Frank Wildhorn’s “Dracula” and “Les Misérables” and conducting Matthew Bourne’s Broadway production of Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake”. Constantine Kitsopoulos studied conducting with Vincent LeSelva, as well as Gustav Meier, Sergiu Commissiona, and Semyon Bychkov. He studied piano with Marienka Michna, Chandler Gregg, Ed Edson, and Sophia Rosoff. His first recording – Baz Luhrmann’s production of La Bohème – was released by Dreamworks in 2002. His recording of Kurt Weill’s “Happy End” was released in 2007 by Ghostlight Records. The cast album of “A Catered Affair” was released in 2008 by PS Classics.  http://www.kitsopoulos.com/

DAVID WOLFSON (Composer, Music Director, Arranger, Pianist, Copyist ) who lives in New York City. He graduated from theCleveland Institute of Music in 1985, and in that same year was the first recipient of the newly established Darius Milhaud Award and won the Bascom Little Fund’s Musical Theatre Composition Competition for his short opera Rainwait. From 1989-1992, Mr. Wolfson was resident composer and music director of EM/R Dance Co., a choreographer’s collective. From 1993-1996, he was co-artistic director of  Wichern/Wolfson dance & music, a company dedicated to performances involving both dance and live music; their final collaboration was Breath: The Passionate Life and Extraordinary Language of Emily Dickinson, an evening-length music-theatre work which they produced at St. Mark’s Church in New York City in 1996. In connection with the company, Mr. Wolfson received several grants from Meet The Composer and a grant from the Music Program of the National Endowment for the Arts. Mr Wolfson’s music for these companies was called ‘brilliant’ by the Cleveland Plain Dealer; the New York Times referred to it as ‘musically inventive’ and ‘theatrically forceful.’ Mr. Wolfson was the Music Director of the New York Theatrical Community Chorus from 2002-2007. From 2007-2010, Mr. Wolfson was the Associate Artistic Director, Music Director and resident composer of Experience Vocal Dance Company. His compositions for the company have been performed at Symposium Tanz und Musiktheater in Hannover, Germany, and in New York at The Field’s Fielday, New Dance Group’s The Exchange, Movement Research’sOpen Performance, and The Composer’s Voice series at Jan Hus Church. He was also the composer for Story Salad, a series of stage revues for children which was toured nationally for thirteen consecutive years by Maximillion Productions, and one year by Story Salad Productions, Inc. Story Salad was seen by well over a million children, teachers and parents. His theatrical song cycle Dreamhouse, based on the poetry ofBarbara DeCesare, premiered in 2005 in New York City as part of the Sixth Annual Midtown International Theatre Festival. Song For An Accident from Dreamhouse was recorded byTamra Hayden on her CD A Day At The Fair. Other recent compositions include the lullaby Like Water (recorded by EVDC principal artist Karen Jolicoeur on her CD The Dream That You Wish), settings of poetry by Peter Beagle and Joy Katz,Petroglyph for solo clarinet and Maya’s Ark, a 10-minute opera for baritone and mezzo-soprano on an original libretto. Current projects include a musical with librettist/lyricist Erik Johnke and a quartet for the Gotham Ensemble.

ANNA JACOBS (Composer/Writer) is a New York-based composer and writer. POP! (written with Maggie-Kate Coleman) premiered at Yale Repertory Theatre in 2009 and won three CT Critics Circle Awards including Outstanding Production of a Musical. It will receive upcoming productions at the Studio Theatre in Washington DC and Pittsburgh City Theatre. STELLA AND THE MOON MAN (written with Richard Tulloch and Adrian Kelly) was co-produced by the Sydney Theatre Company, Theatre of Image, and Australian Youth Orchestra in 2005, and won a Helpmann Award for Best Presentation for Children. Her “Ave Maria” for SATB double choir won the 2006 National Lutheran Choir Composition Contest. It was subsequently published by MorningStar Music Publishers and included on the album Eternity (National Lutheran Choir, Catapult, 2006), and has been broadcast nationwide. Her new musical, HARMONY, KANSAS (written with Bill Nelson), received its first reading this past February, produced by Singing On Stage Productions, and is currently in development. She received her M.F.A. from NYU’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program, her B.M. (Honors I) from the University of Sydney, and also studied composition at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Originally from Sydney, Australia, she now lives in Brooklyn with her husband, Luke, and cats, Josie and Max.

ADAM GWON (Composer/Lyricist) is based in New York City.  His musical Ordinary Days made its NYC premiere at Roundabout Theatre Company, and has since been seen in London’s West End and across the U.S.  His musicals The Boy Detective Fails (book: Joe Meno) and Cloudlands (book/co-lyrics: Octavio Solis) will premiere this season at Signature Theatre (Arlington, VA) and South Coast Repertory, respectively.  Other upcoming projects include Bernice Bobs Her Hair (w/ Julia Jordan) and String (w/ Sarah Hammond).  Adam’s honors include the Kleban, Ebb, and Loewe awards for excellence in musical theater writing, the ASCAP Harold Adamson Award, and the MAC John Wallowitch Award, as well as commissions from Signature Theatre, South Coast Rep, Broadway Across America, and the EST/Sloan Project.  Recordings: Ordinary Days (Ghostlight Records).  Fellowships: MacDowell Colony, Dramatists Guild.  Education: BFA, NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.  Adam is a member of ASCAP and the Dramatists Guild. www.adamgwon.com

MARY SAUNDERS (Master Voice Teacher/Performer) is a Cum Laude/Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Mount Holyoke College with a Masters degree from Middlebury College and the Sorbonne, Paris.  While in Paris, she studied with Pierre Bernac at the Ecole Normale de Musique.. She is currently Associate Professor of Music, Head of Voice Instruction for the Bachelor of Fine Arts in Musical Theater at Penn State University. Previously she was on the BFA Musical Theater faculty at the Hartt School of Music in Hartford Connecticut. An active performer with Broadway, off-Broadway, film and television credits, Ms. Saunders has recently concentrated on the creation and performance of one-woman cabaret shows, the first of which, Stop, Time, played to sell-out houses in New York City. In addition to her university teaching, she maintains a studio in Manhattan for professional performers. In this and recent seasons her students could be seen on Broadway in  The Drowsy Chaperone, Wicked, Little Shop of Horrors, Urinetown, Hairspray, The Producers, Kiss Me Kate, Seussical, The Musical, Cabaret, Follies, 42nd St., Rent, Boys From Syracuse, Mama Mia, The 29th Annual Putnam Valley Spelling Bee, Gypsy, In The Heights, A Tale of Two Cities,  Promises, Promises, Hair and West Side Story. www.belcantocanbelto.com

D. MICHAEL HEATH (The Voice Foundation, NATS, AEA, SAG, AFTRA, AGMA) has worked with many of Broadway’s greatest composers & lyricists including John Kander and Fred Ebb, Cy Coleman, Marvin Hamlisch, Stephen Sondheim, Alan Menken, Tim Rice, and Andrew Lloyd Webber. His Broadway, Off-B’way, and touring performance credits include: Starlight Express, The Most Happy Fella, They’re Playing Our Song, Peg, A Tribute To Agnes Demille, Nunsense, Street Scene, The Pirates Of Penzance, Shenandoah, A Little Night Music, and Les Misérables In Concert where he served as stage director and played the leading role of Jean ValJean. As an educator, D. Michael has served on the voice faculties of the College Conservatory of Music/University of Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky University, Long Island University/CW Post Campus, New York University’s CAP 21, the Hong Kong Academy of the Performing Arts and Lee Theodore’s American Dance Machine. He has given numerous vocal master classes and workshops across the United States and in Hong Kong. D. Michael enjoys a vibrant teaching studio in Manhattan with his students that have performed in the Broadway, Off-B’way and National Touring productions of SOUTH PACIFIC, THE LION KING, ANNIE GET YOUR GUN, THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, LEGALLY BLONDE, A CATERED AFFAIR, 9 TO 5, WICKED, CHICAGO, ROOMS: A ROCK ROMANCE, HAIR, THE WIZARD OF OZ, JERSEY BOYS, THE GREAT AMERICAN TRAILER PARK MUSICAL, A CHORUS LINE, RENT, YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN and SONDHEIM ON SONDHEIM. http://www.voicestudionyc.com/

STAFFORD ARIMA (Director) is a highly successful stage director whose credits include productions in major venues in New York City, London (England), San Diego, Boston, San Francisco and elsewhere. His New York production of Altar Boyz – which played over 2,000 performances – won the Best Off-Broadway Musical, Outer Critics Circle Award and was nominated for a Drama Desk Award as Outstanding Musical. He was also an Olivier Award nominee for Best Director for the West End (London) production of Ragtime.

Current projects in development include two new musicals: Somewhere in Time (music and lyrics by Leslie Arden), and A Separate Peace(based on John Knowles’ coming-of-age novel) and a revisiting of the Broadway musical,Carrie. Engagements this season include his debut at Ontario’s Stratford Shakespeare Festival as the director of Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, featuring Brent Carver.