Kurt Erickson - music, What Your Parents Don't Want You To Know
Kurt Erickson's music has been commissioned and performed by a wide range of ensembles - recent compositional highlights include a premiere and Guest Composer residency at the American Guild of Organists National Convention, a San Francisco Girls Chorus premiere performance at Davies Symphony Hall, and a performance and residency with the Minnesota Orchestra. As a young composer in his twenties, Erickson served composer residencies at San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral, St. Mary the Virgin, Berkeley’s St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, and at the National Shrine of Saint Francis of Assisi. During the current 2010-11 season, performances of his song set Chicago Songs have taken place in New York, San Francisco, Cal State Sacramento’s Festival of New American Music, Cal State Fresno’s New Music Festival, University of South Dakota, San Diego, and Modesto. He has worked extensively with San Francisco Opera Ballet Master Lawrence Pech on a number of ballet and summer festival projects. This summer he will serve as a Guest Composer at the Cal State University Summer Arts Program, and he frequently serves as a guest judge at colleges and universities. Upcoming projects include a new work and residency at Mount Olive College (NC) as well as operatic performances in Sacramento and Fresno, CA.
Paul L. Johnson - music, The Man Who Studied Fear
Paul L. Johnson composed numerous jingles and served as Music Director for Lone Star Lyric's original production, Radio Opera Hour, in 2010. He has composed scores for over twenty musicals, including The Man Who Studied Fear, You Never Can Tell!!, The Three Musketeers, Cowboys!, Tango Masculino, Love who you love who you love... and Nile Blue, all of which have been performed in New York City. He received Off-Off-Broadway Awards for Cowboys! and Tango Masculino. Among other accomplishments, Paul conducted the world premiere of his musical, Where Elephants Weep, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and composed the score for the documentary film American Carny. Paul has been Music Director of over 160 musicals in off-Broadway, off-off-Broadway, regional and international venues. Since 1983 Johnson has served as choir director, handbell choir director, organist and composer-in-residence for the Community Church of the Pelhams where he premiered his Easter Mass and O Salvatore Benedetto as well as numerous other vocal, choral and handbell pieces.
Mark LaPierre - book and lyrics, The Man Who Studied FearMark LaPierre started in the theater business at age 4 as Pig Pen in a production of A Charlie Brown Christmas. From there, he continued performing throughout his school career, majoring in theatre at the University of Southern Maine where he graduated Magna Cum Laude, interning at Maine State Music Theatre, and moving around the country performing. He came to Portland to do summer stock and stayed by accident. He makes his living as a lighting designer in dance, and has toured internationally. He also composes music for plays and holds many sound design credits. His work spans everything from semi-mainstream to slightly scandalous to children’s works. He loves them all. His Off-Off Broadway writing credits include Pinokenstein, Grimm Late Night, Bitterella and Zombie Strippers with the International Cringe Festival. Regional credits include Out of Hand in Los Angeles and Tinderbox in West Virginia. Closer to home in Portland, his Cinderella, commissioned by Tears of Joy, has toured off and on for a decade. Other regional credits include Grimm Late Night and Tinderbox as well as commissions for music scores to As You Like It (Portland Actors Ensemble) and Aristophanes' Birds and Peace (Classic Greek Theatre of Oregon). His romantic comedy, Heart Beatings, recently premiered at Portland's CoHo Theatre. Mark is a member of the Dramatists Guild. He is based in Portland, Oregon, where he lives with his wife and daughter. Check out his web site here.
Aaron Loeb - book and lyrics, What Your Parents Don't Want You To Know...Aaron Loeb’s work has been performed in San Francisco (by SF Playhouse, PlayGround, Central Works, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Just Theatre, and San Francisco Fringe Festival), New York (at LaMaMa E.T.C. and New York International Fringe Festival), Los Angeles (at the Zephyr), Sacramento (at Capital Stage), Ft. Worth (at Amphibian Theater), San Jose (at City Lights Theater Company), and Connecticut (Connecticut Repertory Theater). His full-length plays include Brown, First Person Shooter, Abraham Lincoln’s Big, Gay Dance Party and Blastosphere (with Geetha Reddy). His short works, including The Polyglot, Panopticon, All Thumbs, and Maror the Merrier, have been extensively published by PlayGround, a San Francisco-based producer and publisher of 10-minute plays. His work has also been featured in Script Magazine (NYU Press). Among the honors Loeb has received are two Bay Area Theater Critic Circle Awards for Best New Play (First Person Shooter in ’07 and ALBGDP in ’08), Outstanding Play from the New York International Fringe Festival (ALBGDP in ’09), GLAAD Media Award Nominee (ALBGDP in ’09), Featured Play at the Lincoln Center Director’s Lab (Brown in ’06), Best of the San Francisco Fringe (Three Plays About Your Mom in ’07), and seven “Emerging Playwright Awards” from PlayGround. His plays have been listed on multiple top 10 lists: in New York, from Backstage (ALBGDP, ’09); in the Bay Area, the San Francisco Chronicle (First Person Shooter, ’07) and San Francisco Examiner (ALBGDP, ’08). Loeb has BFAs in Dramatic Writing and Dramatic Literature from New York University. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, Inc., and a Playwrights Foundation resident playwright. Aaron lives in Berkeley, CA with his wife, Kathy Roberts and their daughter, Talitha Jane.
Michael Remson - music, book and lyrics, Clever GretelMichael Remson is a composer, librettist, author, educator and Executive and Artistic Director of the American Festival for the Arts (AFA), one of Texas’ finest music education and performance opportunities serving more than five hundred K-12 students each year. Dr. Remson maintains an active schedule as a composer and librettist. He has received numerous grants, commissions and fellowships and his works have been performed throughout the United States and in Europe by such organizations as Texas Tech University Opera, Abilene Collegiate Opera, Houston Grand Opera/Opera To Go, Lone Star Lyric Theatre Festival and New York City Opera’s VOX series. Dr. Remson has received awards and grant support from the American Music Center and the Houston Arts Alliance and served as Composer-in-Residence with the Ulster Orchestra in Belfast, Northern Ireland, as recipient of a prestigious award from the Americans for the Arts Foundation (ARTS-USA), the Northern Ireland Arts Council and the Irish Arts Council. He serves on the faculty of the Houston Ballet Academy, the University of Houston Moores School of Music and Houston’s High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. He has published two books on American music and has written numerous articles, most recently for the Journal of Film Music. Dr. Remson grew up in New York City and completed doctoral studies in composition and libretto writing with Grammy Award winner Carlisle Floyd, Robert Nelson and Pulitzer Prize winner Edward Albee. He is an alumnus of New York University, the University of Houston and Carnegie Mellon University. Excerpts of his works may be heard at www.MichaelRemson.com, and more information on AFA may be found at www.AFAtexas.org.
Omari Tau - music, book and lyrics, Simply Grimm Prologue, Hans In LuckA native of Sacramento, California, Omari Tau is known primarily as a singer of classical, jazz, musical theater and a range of other musical styles. Tau pursued his Bachelor's degree in Music Education at Michigan State University where he studied voice with baritone Harlan Jennings and was also encouraged to study choral conducting and composition. There he began composing a number of art songs for his colleagues. Next he received his Master of Music in Vocal Performance at the University of Houston Moores School of Music where he studied opera with director Buck Ross and voice with mezzo-soprano Katherine Ciesinski. While in Houston, Omari led Houston Grand Opera's "Opera To Go!" program as an administrator and performing artist as well as both stage and musical director. He also worked with Theatre Under The Stars, the Tony Award-winning Alley Theatre and many other theater organizations while simultaneously transitioning into more jazz and soul styles vocally. Soon he joined the Disney family and began touring in their production of The Lion King in which he is currently performing the role of Banzai. Over the years Omari has been commissioned by Houston Grand Opera's Education and Outreach Department in conjunction with The Anti-Defamation League to compose an original piece for young performers in conjunction with their "No Place For Hate" campaign. His chamber work, A Constant Motion, was commissioned by a chapter of the American Guild of Organists. He lately traveled to Walter Sisulu University in South Africa's Eastern Cape where he wrote and conducted choral works for the university's combined choirs. Mr. Tau has most recently created a number of chamber pieces to accompany books for children through his program, "Lions In The Library," which features artists from across the United States bringing live music and story-telling to young audiences.