Dance Arranging for Musical Theater

WITH

Composer/Lyricist/Arranger
CARMEL DEAN

Arranger/Music Director
DAVID CHASE

Composer/Orchestrator/Arranger
ZANE MARK

MODERATED BY GREG PLISKA
(SCL New York Chapter Chair)

Wednesday, April 26, 7:00PM ET

Join us and a panel of industry-leading dance arrangers as they discuss the practice of arranging and composing for dancers and choreography in musical theater. Presented jointly by the Society of Composers & Lyricists, the Dramatists Guild, and Maestra.

A reception with refreshments will be provided following the discussion.

Carmel Dean is an award-winning composer/lyricist and Broadway music department multi-hyphenate. Her compositional debut, Renascence, was produced in New York in 2018 and subsequently won the Off-Broadway Alliance Award for Best New Musical. Her song cycle about bad-ass, game-changing historical women, Well-Behaved Women, premiered at Joe’s Pub in January 2020, and has gone on to receive rave reviews for its productions in Sydney, Australia, and multiple regional theaters across the US. Current compositions include Maiden Voyage (commissioned for New Works Provincetown) and On Cedar Street (co-composed with Lucy Simon), which is receiving its world premiere at Berkshire Theatre Festival this summer.

As a Broadway musical director, supervisor and/or arranger, Carmel’s credits include the current revival of Funny Girl (starring Lea Michele), If/Then (starring Idina Menzel), American Idiot, Hands on a Hardbody, and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Upcoming Broadway projects include The Notebook (with a score by Ingrid Michaelson) which premiered at Chicago Shakespeare Theater in the fall of 2022. Other roles include vocal arranger for jam-band Phish and Trey Anastasio (Madison Square Garden, Las Vegas, Chicago’s Wrigley Field), performer with Green Day on the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards, and former musical director for Broadway legend Chita Rivera.

Born and raised in Perth, Australia, and currently residing in New York, Carmel is a Fulbright Scholar, holds an MFA from New York University’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program, and is a current member of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Workshop.

David Chase has been music director, supervisor, and/or arranger for over forty Broadway productions. He’s written extensively for the Boston Pops and Tanglewood Festival Chorus (including their signature Twelve Days of Christmas), The Kennedy Center Honors, Radio City Music Hall, EssentialVoicesUSA (including the choral cycle Washington Women), and TV’s Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (where you can also see him onscreen in Season 5). David was the Music Director and Arranger for Apple TV’s Schmigadoon! and NBC’s The Sound of Music and Peter Pan Live! (both of which received Emmy nominations). Grammy and Olivier nominee.  Choral works published by Hal Leonard. David lives in New York City with his wife, actress and Drama Desk nominee Paula Leggett Chase, and their two sons, Kyler and Dashiell. 

Zane Mark is a composer, orchestrator and arranger with credits that include his co-writing Bring in ’da Noise, Bring in ’da Funk for which he received Tony and Grammy award nominations.

Some of his other Broadway credits include The Cher Show, Holler If Ya Hear Me, Motown The Musical, Pippin, Leap of Faith, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, All Shook Up, Never Gonna Dance, and The Full Monty. His Off-Broadway credits include Smart People, Harlem Song, The Brother/Sister Plays and Radiant Baby. 

Greg Pliska is an SCL Board Member and head of the New York Steering Committee. He has created award-winning work for theater, opera, film, television, recordings, and other media. His incidental music for Summer 1976 is currently running at the Samuel J. Friendman Theatre. His other Broadway credits include Sylvia (original score) and War Horse (music direction). Off-broadway works include; Trevor (orchestrator), Comedy of Errors, As You Like It (with Steve Martin), Twelfth Night (with Hem), Two Gentlemen of Verona (assistant music director) for Shakespeare in the Park, Arden of Faversham, The Alchemist, The Government Inspector, Pericles for Red Bull Theater, and others. Film works include; Trust, Manhattan Night, Flying Monsters 3D, and The Infiltrator. His orchestration work includes new themes for NPR’s Morning Edition, CBS Evening News and Face the Nation, IMAX, HBO, and Hulu.

He scored the podcasts Nice Try, Authorized, and Presidents Are People Too. He is the arranger/orchestrator for the acclaimed indie-folk band Hem, and has collaborated on recordings with Duncan Sheik, James Iha, Michael Stipe, Karen Elson, Cat Power, and, most recently, with banjo legend Tony Trischka and cinematic rock band Earthside. Greg is currently developing A Most Dangerous Man (with librettist Chuck Morey), a music-theater work based upon the life of labor leader and civil rights activist Walter Reuther, and Remember Me (with writer Mia Chung), a ghostly story about the Korean War and its consequences. 

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*** EVENT INFORMATION ***

Check-in begins 7:00PM.

If you RSVP but are unable to attend, please cancel your reservation by 10:00AM Wednesday, April 26.

Free for current SCL members (click here to check your membership status).

Please allow extra time for traffic and check-in.

This invitation is non-transferable.

Seating is first come, first serve.