LEAVING A MARK ON THE WORLD

I am collaborating with bookwriter and lyricist Amy Andrews to compose the score for a new musical. We have been working on the musical since February 2023, and are excitedly working towards a reading later this year.

Our musical adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s novel To the Lighthouse tells the story of a frustrated artist struggling with an unfinished painting, a rapidly changing world, and the decisions we make that shape our legacy. At the Ramsay family summer home on the remote coast of Scotland, our protagonist Lily Briscoe must confront other people’s expectations and her own fear to capture her artistic vision on canvas. Meanwhile, Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay, their children, and their guests for the weekend all try, in their own way, to leave their mark on the world. The first act takes place in 1910 and the second act in 1920. In the intervening decade, a world war and global pandemic combine to create a world that is largely unrecognizable to those living in it. Those who survive must reexamine their understanding of legacy and how we care for one another as humans. Within this context, Lily must ultimately make the brave choice to finish her painting.

We’ve had the great fortune to present our work in a July 2023 cabaret at 54 Below with Women of the Wings, and a January 2024 cabaret, also at 54 Below with The Lonely Artists’ Salon. The video above is the performance of “Lily’s Vision”, sung by Aléna Watters.

ORCHESTRATION

In fall 2023, I was thrilled join the creative team as the orchestrator for a new queer and trans musical. “Jack & Aiden” was commissioned by the Ground Floor Theatre in Austin, TX for writers Tova Katz (music & lyrics) and Lane Michael Stanley (book and additional lyrics).

The show is orchestrated for 6 instruments: violin, viola, guitar, bass, drums and piano.

When Aiden first meets Jack, it’s through the transactional world of gay male hookup apps– Aiden’s first exploration since transitioning. But as the two spend more time together, things get complicated - they must navigate their grief, recovery and trauma and find out if they can hold one another’s human messiness. Jack & Aiden asks what it takes to open ourselves up to the profound joy and pain that come with truly being known.

Banner photo credit: Steve Rogers

Hack, Punt, Tool

An original MIT musical

Hack, Punt, Tool started out when someone in the MIT Musical Theater Guild said "Hey, wouldn't it be cool if there was a musical about hacking?" Ultimately, with three bookwriters, one lyricist, two orchestrators, and myself as the composer, we developed the show through three workshops and over 20 drafts. The Musical Theater Guild premiered the show in February 2012, almost exactly one year after the idea was first proposed.

Composer: Julie Henion Richardson

Lyricist: Daniel Levine

Book Writers: Zach Barryte, Rachel Bowens-Rubin, Danbee Kim

Orchestrators: Matthew Putnam, Hubert Hwang and Julie Henion Richardson

Hack, Punt Tool by the numbers

workshop readings

meetings with Michael Cuthbert, Julie’s music advisor

“emergency” meetings

emails sent

longest Skype call

total hours spent on Skype

greatest number of scene/song drafts

highlighter colors used on Google docs

total number Google docs used

number of times we broke Google docs

miles put on Julie’s car to attend meetings

number of hours we kept Daniel away from lab

gallons of juice consumed

people on the creative mailing list

number of shows listened to for inspiration

character with the most name changes

single word yielding the longest discussion

dawns shared

craziest time signature proposed

This video is the 2017 revival of Hack, Punt, tool put on by the MIT Musical Theater Guild. It was filmed by MIT Student Cable, with audio mixing by Julie Henion Richardson.

“There’s More to Life than Tooling” is a song from Hack, Punt, Tool. This project was an arrangement of the song for full symphony orchestra including full strings, triple woodwinds and brass, three percussionists, harp and piano.

The audio recording below was created in Cubase Pro 10 using the East West Symphonic Gold sample libraries.

AUDIO

Black and White and Red All Over

Black and White and Red All Over is a thesis play written by Karen Hart for which I wrote an accompanying electronic music score.

Audio Track

I composed the soundtrack to the play in Reaper using virtual instruments. Since the play contains no dialog, it was up to the music to accompany the actions to tell the story.

Video Recording

Below is the video recording of the play filmed by Emily Rosser, as performed in January 2014 at MIT.

Soundtrack to a student-Built Video Game

It Came from the Scrapheap is a Flash game designed and built by a group of four students at MIT. They needed a soundtrack to the game. Based on their input, I developed two tracks to meet their needs. They were composed using virtual instruments in Reaper.

Theater

I’ve been regularly involved in local community theater for the last eight years. You’ll typically find me behind the conductor’s stand or in the sound booth.

Orchestra

• South Pacific - Spring 2006, Viola

  • Watertown High School

• Anything Goes - Spring 2007, Viola

  • Watertown High School

• 9 to 5 - January 2016, Violin

  • MIT Musical Theater Guild

• Pirates of Penzance - Fall 2016, Viola

  • MIT Gilbert & Sullivan Players

• Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat - January 2017, Viola

  • MIT Musical Theater Guild