Becoming A Lyricist
Monday, March 22nd, 2010
Stephen Schwartz - Composer/Lyricist
Many years ago when I was in my mid 20s, I served as composer-in-residence at the New York Shakespeare Festival for around five years. It was an unbelievable opportunity to learn on the job, get major experience writing for the theater and work with the best people in the business.
Most composers for the theater are happy if they can get a show on and out there in the public eye once every three to five years. In my five years at the Festival I did music for over 40 productions.
In the course of doing all that work I had the opportunity to meet and work with the best talent in the world in the theater. At the time, though I often wrote lyrics stumbling blindly along, I always collaborated with a lyricist when it came to anything important. My abilities as a composer were far ahead of my lyric writing chops.
I remember one evening while there at NYSF running into Stephen Schwartz who was a contemporary. Steven had written the music and lyrics for Godspell and Pippin and later for Wicked and a host of animated Disney films. I was looking for a lyricist for a project at the NYSF and asked him if he might be interested in collaborating.
