BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 METHOD:PUBLISH PRODID:-//Virginia Tech//VTCalendar//EN BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20240409T143000Z UID:1712155388602@thor.lawrence.edu CATEGORIES:Speakers DTSTART:20240409T143000Z DTEND:20240409T153000Z SUMMARY:Maestra Talk given by Georgia Stitt CONTACT;ALTREP="mailto:claire.schmidt@lawrence.edu": Claire Schmidt\, 920-832-6612\, claire.schmidt@lawrence.edu ORGANIZER;CN="Con - Guest - Lecture": about:blank DESCRIPTION: For the women and non-binary people who make the music in the musical theater industry. \n \n GEORGIA STITT is a composer/lyricist, music director, pianist, and music producer. Her original musicals include Snow Child (commissioned by Arena Stage and directed by Molly Smith); Samantha Spade, Ace Detective (commissioned by TADA Youth Theater and written with Lisa Diana Shapiro, National Youth Theatre 2014 Winner aEURoeOutstanding New MusicalaEUR?); Big Red Sun (NAMT Festival winner in 2010, Harold Arlen Award in 2005, written with playwright John Jiler); The Danger Year (a musical revue); The Water (winner of the 2008 ANMT Search for New Voices in American Musical Theatre and written with Jeff Hylton and Tim Werenko); and Mosaic (commissioned for Inner Voices Off-Broadway in 2010 and written with Cheri Steinkellner). She is currently writing The Big Boom (with Hunter Foster) and an oratorio called The Circling Universe that has been developed at Princeton University.\n \n GeorgiaaEUR(TM)s non-theatrical compositions include Fanfare for the Ups and Downs, commissioned by the Cincinnati Symphony and premiered by clarinetist Chris Pell, and several choral pieces: With Hope And Virtue, using text from President ObamaaEUR(TM)s 2009 inauguration speech and featured on NPR as part of Judith ClurmanaEUR(TM)s Sing Out, Mister President! cycle, De Profundis, premiered by the International Orange Chorale in San Francisco, and Joyful Noise, a setting of Psalm 100 (all published by G. Schirmer), as well as A Better Resurrection and The Promise of Light, published by Walton Music, and Let Me Sing For You, performed at The Kennedy Center, and Echo, performed by the WomenaEUR(TM)s Chorus at the University of California, Berkeley. Recent commissions include Do Not Stand At My Grave, for the Hilton Head Choral Society and Orchestra and Pretty Women/Beautiful Girls, an arrangement of Stephen Sondheim songs for LA-based womenaEUR(TM)s choir Vox Femina. Waiting for Wings, co-written with husband Jason Robert Brown for orchestra and narrator, was commissioned by the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra and premiered there in 2013 with conductor John Morris Russell. Georgia has served as the composer-in-residence at Pasadena Presbyterian Church in California and for the Tribeca Performing Arts Center in New York City. She has performed her music throughout the US and in England, Scotland, Australia, Denmark, Germany, and Japan. \n \n In 2007 Georgia released her first album, This Ordinary Thursday: The Songs Of Georgia Stitt, featuring an impressive array of Broadway singers such as Kelli OaEUR(TM)Hara, Faith Prince, Carolee Carmello, Sara Ramirez, Susan Egan, Tituss Burgess, Keith Byron Kirk, Andrea Burns, Matthew Morrison, Will Chase, Jenn Colella, Lauren Kennedy and Cheyenne Jackson. With lyricist Marcy Heisler she wrote and in 2009 recorded Alphabet City Cycle, a song cycle for soprano and violin featuring Tony-nominated singer Kate Baldwin. GeorgiaaEUR(TM)s latest album, My Lifelong Love, was released in 2011, featuring performances by Anika Noni Rose, Brian daEUR(TM)Arcy James, John Pizzarelli and Jessica Molaskey, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Shoshana Bean, Susan Egan, Heidi Blickenstaff, Michael Arden, Christopher Jackson, Laura Osnes, Kate Baldwin, and Michael McElroy. In 2020, in the middle of a global pandemic, she released A Quiet Revolution, featuring theater luminaries Kate Baldwin, Laura Benanti, Heidi Blickenstaff, AndrA(C)a Burns, Brandon Victor Dixon, Sutton Foster, Joshua Henry, Amber Iman, Jeremy Jordan, Caitlin Kinnunen, Norm Lewis, Emily Skinner, Jessica Vosk, Betsy Wolfe, and E.J. Zimmerman.\n \n Georgia produced and arranged Susan EganaEUR(TM)s album The Secret of Happiness and Robert CreightonaEUR(TM)s album AinaEUR(TM)t We Got Fun. Additionally, Georgia has written songs that are included on EganaEUR(TM)s Coffee House and Winter Tracks and Kevin OdekirkaEUR(TM)s Unheard (all LML Records), Lauren KennedyaEUR(TM)s Here and Now (PS Classics), Daniel BoysaEUR(TM) So Close (Eden Records), Caroline SheenaEUR(TM)s Raise The Curtain, and Stuart Matthew PriceaEUR(TM)s All Things In Time (both SimG Records). She contributed songs to the 2008 MTV movie The American Mall. In 2020 Kate Baldwin released a single called aEURoeSomething That You Do,aEUR? written by Georgia based on a true story from KateaEUR(TM)s life.\n \n Georgia was the music director of 13: The Musical, which was released on Netflix in 2022, and the on-set music supervisor for the Anna Kendrick/Jeremy Jordan film The Last Five Years. She has previously worked as the vocal coach for the NBC hit show AmericaaEUR(TM)s Got Talent. She was the assistant music director for the NBC TV special Clash of the Choirs, the on-camera vocal coach for the NBC reality TV show Grease: YouaEUR(TM)re The One That I Want, and the Production Music Coordinator for the Disney/ABC TV musical Once Upon A Mattress starring Tracey Ullman and Carol Burnett. On Broadway she was the assistant conductor of Little Shop of Horrors and the associate conductor of the Encores! production of Can-Can starring Patti LuPone. Other theater credits: Sweet Charity (starring Sutton Foster), Avenue Q, Sweet Smell of Success, The Music Man, Titanic, Annie, and both the 2000 national tour and the 2023 Broadway revival of Parade. She has also served as musical director and arranger/orchestrator for The Broadway Divas in concerts in New York, California and Australia and was a music consultant for the feature film The Stepford Wives, directed by Frank Oz. In 2005 she served as an arranger for the Boston Pops Orchestra (Keith Lockhart, conductor) in their 75th Anniversary Tribute to Stephen Sondheim at Tanglewood and BostonaEUR(TM)s Symphony Hall. In 2014 she played a nun and served of the music team for NBCaEUR(TM)s The Sound Of Music Live! with Carrie Underwood and Audra McDonald and in 2021 she made a cameo appearance in Lin-Manuel MirandaaEUR(TM)s film Tick, TickaEUR| Boom!\n \n GeorgiaaEUR(TM)s work as an arranger, pianist, and coach can be heard on Kate BaldwinaEUR(TM)s record LetaEUR(TM)s See What Happens (PS Classics), as well as on the Broadway Cares Home For The Holidays CD (Centaur Records) and the cast albums of Parade (2023), After The Fair, Shine, DoReMi, and Little Shop of Horrors.\n \n Georgia received her M.F.A. in Musical Theater Writing from New York University and her B.Mus. in Music Theory and Composition from Vanderbilt University, where she graduated magna cum laude. She currently teaches Musical Theater Writing at Princeton University and has previously taught at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and Pace University in New York. She is a recipient of the 2023 aEURoeGo Write A MusicalaEUR? Lilly Award, an Obie Award, a MUSE Award from the Prospect Theater and an Inspire Award from the Foundation of New American Musicals, the Jamie deRoy and Friends Award, the Harold Arlen Award, and the Frederick Loewe Fellowship from ASCAP, and the Sue Brewer Award for excellence in music composition. Georgia is the Founder and President of Maestra, an activist organization for women and nonbinary musicians in the theater. She also serves on the Council of The Dramatists Guild of America and on the Leadership Council for the Songwriters & Composers Wing at The Recording Academy. Other proud memberships include ASCAP, the American Federation of Musicians (Local 802), and MUSE (Musicians United for Social Equity). Georgia lives in New York with her husband, composer/lyricist Jason Robert Brown, and their two daughters.\n\n Price: Free\n LOCATION:Shattuck Hall, Room 163 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR