In September of 2004, my friend Dan Elish and I did a private reading of the first twenty pages or so of a new musical we were working on called 13.  We filled a room with thirteen kids, all of whom were between 12 and 14 years old, and we watched as they brought ourRead More »

Betty Buckley and I have been circling each other for over a quarter-century, always saying how much we love each other’s work and how much we’d love to collaborate, but never knowing exactly how to do it. I’ve conducted for her at some benefits and taught some classes with her, and she’s sung several ofRead More »

In the summer of 1984, I signed up to be in the Rock Band program at French Woods. Every other kid in Rock Band that summer was a guitarist or a drummer; no one ever knew what to do with a keyboard player. (And in those pre-DX7 days, a keyboard was generally an unmiked uprightRead More »

It feels like a cliché to write about a performer’s “passion,” such an overused word, and yet I can’t think of any other way to discuss the experience of putting this show together with Raúl Esparza. What was evident from the outset was his incredible passion – passion for telling stories, passion for doing theRead More »